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A full history of learning technologies is beyond the scope of this research report. with a principal aim of controlling the learner and the pace of his or her learning. Educational or learning technologies are anything that extends our ability to teach and learn. Given that 50 percent of our brainpower is devoted to vision.” Starting in the first century AD. and clay tablets onto which symbols were pressed as the earliest forms of writing.” The word comes from the Latin lectura. The technologies of writing and reading extend our abilities by allowing thoughts to be expressed and received in words. many different ways to learn. But I mention it in the context of arguing that the first versions of e-learning consisted of putting industrialized. oral techniques that are passed on from generation to generation in cultures where speaking is the primary means of transmitting knowledge. Stories are ways of “depositing” our thoughts and memories outside of our physical bodies into the larger community. was first introduced in Prussia (Germany) in the 1770s. to quote Donald Norman (1993). visualization with pictures and graphics is a powerful tool. detentions. various Christian orders copied manuscripts by hand. even if the originator of the words is not present. “things that make us smart.Part I: E-Learning Architectures and Frameworks
A Brief History of Learning Technologies
Just what are learning technologies? We tend to think of them as the latest wave of computer-based technologies that present educational materials and online assessments to learners sitting in front of a computer. and recess. material. Humans developed technologies for learning well before the advent of writing over 5000 years ago. The second way we learn from an early age is by listening to stories and repeating them to others. or device that extends human abilities. This new technology was first used by accountants to track crops and inventories. or “reader. Schools were started to teach accounting. coupled with faster printing and binding methods. Schools did not always have classrooms that were organized as we know them today. similar to the organization of the burgeoning factories of that time. Technologies are any technique. with rows. Industrial-ized schooling is about the teacher presenting materials to the learner who must take them and prove that he or she has learned through the successful passing of examinations. Writing and reading were first developed in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) about 6000 years ago. The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 allowed a
much wider distribution of knowledge. that lecturing. With these reforms. Perhaps the first way we learn is by imitation. class periods. in fact. is a 2000 year old “technology. Learning became standardized and linear.just the ability to follow an example. from a few literate clergy to a much wider group of educated readers. for example. A third way to learn is by seeing. Medieval universities followed the same practice. There are. They are. early cave drawings that told stories of hunting and warfare. Examples from early humans include tools for hunting and fishing. and language for communication. the raising of hands.” Some of the earliest learning technologies include marks on a path to indicate directions or danger. The modern classroom. fire for warmth and cooking. linear teaching techniques online. the classroom became industrialized. making multiple copies by having a reader dictate from a manuscript while others copied it word for word. still used in many institutions of higher education.
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. But learning technologies have a much longer history. We tend to forget. marks and other techniques for signaling direction. The introduction of textbooks as a technology for teaching was the result of mass education movements in the late 19th century. Learning by imitation doesn't require teaching technologies . Classrooms themselves can be seen as a form of technology. as books were scarce.

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Creates a self-healing infrastructure that reduces management costs Provides truly real-time. 2005. a learner should be able to “plug in” to the grid and remotely start any application and/or receive access to any content on the grid. and interfaces to grid middleware and visualization environments (See: http://www. Services need not be conducted at a particular system or particular network. see the call for papers in Learning Grid.
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.free. Grid technologies define a new computing paradigm by making an analogy to the electric power grid.org). The search and connectivity to other services is dynamic.
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Short-term benefits of implementing SOA include the following: > > > > > Enhanced reliability Reduced hardware acquisition costs Existing development skills leveraged Accelerated movement to standards Provides a data bridge between incompatible technologies
Long-term benefits of implementing SOA include the following: > > > > Provides the ability to build composite applications Creates a self-healing infrastructure that reduces management costs Provides truly real-time decision-making applications Enables the compilation of a unified taxonomy of information across an enterprise and its customer and partners
The ultimate vision for service oriented architecture is to construct e-learning resources in a grid. For example.org) has a number of published documents that. January. Number 3.imsglobal.
Benefits from a business value perspective include the following: > Provides the ability to build composite applications
E-Learning Frameworks and Standards
Several efforts have been started to establish a formal framework for producing e-learning. the Access Grid is an ensemble of e-learning resources including multimedia large-format displays. presentation and interactive environments. with access to an enormous variety of learning materials and programs.grid. (For a longer description of grid architecture in e-learning. Links are based on loose couplings rather than tight a integration of programs.fr/publication. the IMS Global Consortium (http://www. In particular. With applications and content becoming both distributed and interoperable.accessgrid. There is authentication and authorization support at every level. php). They provide location independence. Find it at: http://kaleidoscope.learning technologies is Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). decisionmaking applications Enables the compilation of a unified taxonomy of information across an enterprise and its customer and partners Ability to more quickly meet customer demands Lower costs associated with acquiring and maintaining technology Managing business functionality closer to the business units Leverages existing investments in technology Reduces reliance on expensive custom development
Service Oriented Architectures
Chatarji (2004) suggests that service oriented architectures offer the following advantages over traditional approaches to distributed computing: > > > > They offer business services across platforms.

and Votis. M. mobile devices. R.. Bryan (2006). Ahmad. R. Italy. For example. M. Strengths and weaknesses of each technology are then presented.” the infrequent requests and desires of many individuals. Z. (2005).. ambient networks. McClatchey. Weiss. 2005).. Adaptive E-Learning GRID Platform. October. and a bibliography. Chrysostalis. We are now in the era of providing for “the long tail.. those learners are now keeping their own records. the content that arrives after making a request is becoming more personalized (Werkhoven.. Montreal. New York: Hyperion. Ali.com/wired/archive/12. Zanichelli... http://ewic. Bertolazzi. Paper presented to the International Workshop on Educational Models for GRID Based Services. Umer. A.no/~divitini/ubilearn20 05/Final/amoretti_ubilearn. G. along with selected examples. 2004).
Bibliography
Abbas. Instead of a central administrative office keeping information banks on many learners.. and wearable computers. Because this research report is meant as a reference work. UK. 19. 16. F.com/gp/product/1401 302378/104-71320800775136?v=glance&n=283155 Bailetti. I discuss the meaning of these emerging technologies in e-learning based on both knowledge lifecycles and technology innovation cycles. http://www. I have tried to project what we can expect over the next five years.ntnu. Moreover. M. Switzerland. I hope you will find it useful. David (2005). Paper presented at workshop for the Semantic Web Interest Group. http://www. The degree and experience of collaborating and sharing information has also changed with online learning. Odeh. S.. often in the form of e-portfolios (Roberts et al. http://www.pdf Anderson. The Long Tail: why the future of business is selling less of more. 2004. I recently was working on my computer in a hotel in Berlin while simultaneously chatting online with one colleague in Canada and another in China. User-created content. Wales. Chris (2004).educause. K. As Anderson (2004. The Long Tail. When Push comes to Pull: the new economy and culture of
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. 41(2). N. Chris (2006). Sept. and McGinnis (2004). online resources. the reader can approach any topic in any order. often placed in repositories as open source content or software.ability to find both human and information resources at a moment’s notice to resolve an issue has now become a competitive advantage. Milan. M.. A Service-Oriented Architecture for Creating Customized Learning Environments. Web 2.asp?bhcp=1 Amoretti.cscsi. A Semantic Grid-based E-Learning Framework (SELF). Thus.amazon. This report identifies 52 distinct technologies that are being used today in online learning. is becoming commonplace. the world of learning can now revolve around the individual learner and not the instructor. and Conte. (2002). In the last chapter. Giotopoulos.DC/0502051 Alexander. M. June 2005. M. servicing such a large variety of requests is only possible in the online environment.org/conferences/2002/1stl ege/session1/paper1.. Computing is becoming pervasive and ubiquitous as we move into a world of wireless hotspots.bcs. http://www. March/April 2006. Nov. 2006) has argued. Each technology and its relevance to learning is described. Five years ago. F.org/abs/cs. Service-oriented Grids for Dynamic ELearning Environments...idi. http://arxiv. Lausanne. (2005). Paper presented at the 5th IEEE International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid. Paper presented at Communities and Technologies 2005. T.0: a new wave of innovation for teaching and learning? EDUCAUSE Review. Wired Magazine. K. http://www. perhaps a dozen technologies could be identified as producing and supporting elearning materials and experiences. Cardiff. From this.1 0/tail.html Anderson.org/home/CSCSI/Member s/swig/swig04papers/bailetti-weissmcinnis. 2002. All this is to say that e-learning is based on a set of emerging technologies.wired. Reggiani.htm Bollier.pdf Bogonikolos. Likothanassis.edu/apps/er/erm06/ erm0621. 12(10).

http://www.. UK.sricbi.” Projected benefits include the following: > > Making people more comfortable with their computers Detecting whether a person is under stress. Without the ability to understand emotions. computers will never be-come human-like or appear “natural. posture. too.cs.co. author of the 1997 groundbreaking book.bham. accuracy.” http://www. Affective computing is aimed at giving computers skills of emotional intelligence. the MYSELF project is trying to “integrate affective computing into virtual tutors to enhance distance learning and training applications. http://www. it is not surprising that researchers are working on software that can recognize the nonverbal cues that indicate specific human emotional states. gestures.mit.” (Anolli.html
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.it/ Ditto the Donkey software rates the niceness or nastiness of messages and responds “emotionally. affective computing can give the therapist more information on a client’s emotional state. because as pervasive or ubiquitous computing becomes
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Major difficulties with using computers for the above “benefits” are concerns with privacy. Specific algorithms interpret these clues and instruct the computer to take appro-priate actions. In online therapy. Using emotionally realistic characters in an online simulation can make e-learning more effective (Maldonado et al. including the ability to recognize and express emotions. or sad. heads the MIT lab on affective computing. speech patterns
mainstream. For example. keystroke patterns.uk/research/cogaff /0-INDEX. Affective computing can detect whether a learner is having a problem with a subject and adjust accordingly by offering tutoring or less difficult learning materials.ac. Given that 80 percent to 90 percent of human-to-human communication is nonverbal.” Affective computing employs cameras and body sensors to discover clues about what a user is feeling.media. understand. in Italy. privacy. facial recognition. et al.convo. and react to human emotions..edu The MYSELF project coordinates a number of researchers in several European countries who are working on affective computing. The lab’s Web site has many resources to check out at: http://affect.shtml) contends that “affective computing is an important development in computing.
Selected Examples
Rosalind Picard. maintains a list of papers and doctoral dissertations on the topic of affective computing. Making computers more responsive to a learner’s emotions should also enhance learning. and legality.Affective Computing
Related terms
Artificial intelligence. emotions. SRI Consulting (http://www. emotional design. security. then trying to change the user's emotional state Improving the safety of public spaces by detecting a person's malicious intent before he or she commits a crime Learning about the state of employees’ emotions in order to increase productivity Assessing the reaction of consumers to product offerings Learning about the state of employees’ emotions in order to increase productivity Assessing the reaction of consumers to product offerings
Description
Affective computing allows computers to interpret. confused.com/Explorer/NGT-AC. 2005). 2005). Affective Computing.uk/x02/
Online Resources
The Cognition and Affect Project at the University of Birmingham. and to respond to them effectively.myself-proj. computers will be far more invisible and natural in their interactions with humans.

benevolence. not only about environments. Sahin (2000) says that “self-organization of …intelligent agents is accomplished because each agent models other agents by observing their behavior. Agents are autonomous and can act independently within the limits their programming. 2004) and are. Learning by computers is sometimes called machine learning. Wright (1997) has even suggested that virtual agents can have emotions. a Learning-by-Teaching approach can also be effective (Leelawong. which is a sub-field of artificial intelligence. Third. However. veracity. Agent-generated content can be utilized in several different ways. These “pedagogical agents” serve as the role of teacher by presenting the materials to learners online.. 2004). and social (able to communicate and interact with other agents). flexible means reactive (responds to its environment). Other possible qualities of online agents include mobility. Being goal orientated is a key character of agents (Yan. and. et al. A student agent and an environment agent allowed interactivity and change within the environment. Fourth. In such situations. Luengo (1999) describes students interacting with three agents while constructing a mathematical proof.Agents
Related terms:
Artificial intelligence. First. useful in educational simulations. and both may be found in the same
http://w3. Second.informatik. Agents have beliefs. An agent can act as a personal assistant for a teacher and as a personal assistant for a student. told the students when Betty was wrong and how they could teach her properly. 1999). of the University of Goteberg in Sweden. and many of them can actually learn. see the paper by Far et al. (2004) report that teaching a computer agent can be effective in terms of learning. animated agents can be used to speak and present learning materials in an online application. 2005). software agents can retrieve content on the Internet for an individual user. In this context. autonomous agents. proactive (goal directed). Software agents act on behalf of users to accomplish their goals. but
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. Dick Stenmark. Multiple adaptive agents act as a “complex adaptive system” to reproduce social dynamics with feedback loops and uncertain outcomes. learning/adaptation. 1999). software agents can “watch” for new items of interest to a learner and send an alert when one appears. has classified intelligent agents as follows: > > > > > > > > > Interface agents System agents Advisory agents Filtering agents Retrieval agents Navigation agents Monitoring agents Recommender agents Profiling agents
Description
Agents are intelligent software programs that can act on behalf of an individual or a group.htm) Most online agents in e-learning play the role of teacher or tutor. Agents can be used to model social systems (Guessoum. She made mistakes. Intelligent computer aided instruction or tutoring programs often use agent technology. Ueno (2005) describes an agent that learned from the log data of a Web site. For example. rationality. 2005.gu. A software simulation for Grade 5 students called Betty’s Brain “learned” by students teaching her about concept maps. Mentor. agents need to cooperate with each other to solve collective problems.se/~dixi/agent/clas s. Viswanath. Katzlberger. A second agent in the simulation. personal agents can negotiate with other agents to produce a personalized learning environment. therefore. intelligent agents
program (for example. Sometimes multiple agents can work together. An intelligent agent is a computer system capable of flexible autonomous action in some environment (Wooldridge. and the students had to continue to teach her. avatars.

whereas Flash plays automat-ically within the latest versions of the most popular Web browsers. some knowledge of computer programming is necessary. and rendering solution from Autodesk (formerly Alias). Their VisionBlazer product is described as “easy to use. Following is a list of leading packages with company Web sites: AfterEffects – An industry standard from Adobe. connected with its Director and Authorware content creation packages.com/gallery/default. go to: http://www. More sophisticated procedures in Flash may require the use of Action-Script. animating. a high-end editing and visual effects suite.com Enliven . Shockwave is a program that takes Director “movies” or Authorware animations and com-presses and readies them for play-back on the Web.massivesoftware. Macromedia Flash has based digital animation on traditional animation techniques. and rendering tool.com/
Software and Hardware for Producing 3-D Web Graphics
Numerous 3-D authoring packages range from relatively inexpensive to tens of thousands of dollars. For information on Flash.catoolkit. http://www. See why it has won Academy Awards at: http://usa.macromedia.apple.Software for Producing Flash and Shockwave Animations
One of the most popular software packages on the market is Macro-media Flash (Macromedia is now owned by Adobe).viewpoint.com/dynamics/demov ersion. effects.html Falling Bodies .animationonline. http://faraday.com/finalcutstudio/motio n/ SoftImage|XSI . For more information on Shockwave.. A downloadable “plug-in” is required to play Shock-wave. a subsidiary of Avid Technology.as p?pageID=1 EI Technology Group’s Animation System and Amorphium.com/pub/products/e nliven. http://www. http://www. Version 9 is available: http://www..autodesk.html Lightwave 3D is a modeling.” http://www.com/lightwave/lw9_bet afaq.eitechnologygroup.Softimage Co.utoronto. http://www. their 3-D character creation environment.swishzone.ca/GeneralI nterest/Harrison/Flash/
that work in 3ds Max.newtek. Inc.com/products/aftereffec ts/main.com/software/flas h/flashpro/ Shockwave is an older technique from Macromedia. It is part of Final Cut Studio.com/ Eighty-five pre-built Flash animations for Physics are available under a Creative Commons license from the University of Toronto. go to: http://macromedia.animats.ViewPoint’s Enliven provides a simple visual interface for creating 3-D interactive Web content quickly and easily without programming.php Massive software is used to add animated crowds to movies.adobe. go to: http://www. have been used in a number of Academy Award winning films.softimage. 2004). http://www.com/adsk/servlet/inde x?id=6871843&siteID=123112 Motion2 is professional level animation software from Apple that runs on both Macintosh and Intel platforms.Falling Bodies is a special purpose plug-in for Softimage|3D. using accurate dynamic simulation techniques. has one of the world’s most advanced 3-D content creation tools. animation.com/ Novices at animation can try the HTML and Flash templates from Animation Online.physics. http://www.Character Animation Technol-ogies (CAT) has a set of advanced animation tools
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. http://www. the built-in programming language. To use ActionScript. It animates fall stunts. It is popular because it is easy to use and is cross-browser compatible (Hess and Hancock. For a free demo.com A low cost alternative to authoring in the Flash format is SWISH.html CAT . http://www.com Maya is a high-end modeling.

Voice Only Tutor – Craig et al.pdf
Hybrid schemes:
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.unito.edu/~circsim/documents/ fydiss. and gaze during dialog does not produce a split attention effect and concomitant decrements in performance. etc) and how they are interrelated.pdf Reasoning About Actions and Changes – Baldoni et al..di. http://www.e.uic.” http://www. Approaches include the following: Dialogue-Based Intelligent Tutoring Systems – Yang (2001) describes a system for taking turns in a dialogue-based intelligent tutoring system. objects. Schemes for knowledge representation from Hatzilygeroudis and Prentzas (2005) include the following: Schemes for knowledge representation from Hatzilygeroudis and Prentzas (2005) include the following: Single schemes: > > > > > > > > > Semantic nets Conceptual Graphs Ontologies Symbolic rules Expert systems Case-based representations Neural networks Belief networks Fuzzy rules
> > > > > >
Connectionist expert systems Integration of rules and cases Description logics Terminological knowledge Assertional knowledge Neurules (integration of symbolic rules with neurocomputing)
As the above list of issues shows.it/~argo/papers/2004_ JAIR. They advocate for a hybrid approach to knowledge representation.iit. gestures. it also does not enhance performance when compared to a condition that includes only spoken narration.. found that the generator which intuitively produces the best language does engender the most learning. http://lsa. concepts.pdf Natural Language Processing – Di Eugenio et al.” http://www. Steinhart (2001) used this e for tutoring writing. They divide knowledge into the following types: Structural knowledge is concerned with types of entities (i.edu/papers/daveDissert ation. 2002).” practical knowledge about how to solve problems based on experience.” The talking head agent metaphor may be more trouble (and expense) than it is worth. Heuristic knowledge is knowledge in the form of “rules of thumb.interactions with the system (see Smid et al. Relational knowledge concerns relations between entities of the domain. rather than using a single type of knowledge.colorado. A great deal of further development needs to occur before this technology becomes mature.
Selected Examples
Artificial intelligence in e-learning has generated a wide range of approaches to improving computer-based teaching. Talking Head Tutor vs. (2004) show that “while a talking head displaying facial expressions. (2005a.cs.edu/~bdieugen/PSpapers/ACL05.pdf Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) – LSA is a technique used for automatic scoring of essays.cs. using artificial intelligence in e-learning is not a simple matter. Difficulties in Representing Knowledge – Hatzilygeroudis and Prentzas (2005) provide a comprehensive review of different schemes for representing knowledge. 2005b) develop-ed two natural language generators and “. (2004) use an agent logic language (DyLOG) to implement reasoning capabilities of agents to “dynamically build study plans and to verify the correctness of user-given study plans with respect to the compet-ence that the user wants to acquire.

taking personalized and adaptive learning to a new level.cs.edu/ Other universities with research groups in intelligent tutoring and artificial intelligence include the following: University of Sydney .” http://www. preferred cadence.org/cfp.htm For an introduction to intelligent tutoring.org/
Worcester Polytechnic Institute – Tutor Research Group http://web.edu/Research/trg/ The Intelligent Tutoring Systems Conference is held every two years. http://www.org/2000/feb2 000/ong. http://www.cmu.com/s10.learningcircuits.org/2002/04 /25/artificial_intelligence_application_in_di stance_learning_and_education. skill gaps.pact.ed.autotutor. and learning style.its2006.htm University of Memphis – Tutoring Research Group – (developers of AutoTutor) http://www. Its Pittsburgh Advanced Cognitive Tutor Center (PACT) develops “cognitive tutors” that have been used widely in constructing intelligent tutoring systems in a variety of settings.ac.ac. with the next one in 2007.au/~netsys/researc h/current_computer_science_education_re search.licef.htm The Robin Good blog has a long list of links and articles on artificial intelligence in distance learning and education. The 2006 conference is in Taipei.cs. http://aied.teluq.uk/ The American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) maintains a listing of Intelligent Tutoring resources. http://www. China.org/AITopics/html/tutor. http://ctat.” http://www. http://aied.htm The IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Informatics is held every year.html The International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education (IJAIED) is the official journal of the International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society (AIED). http://www.ht ml The LICEF Research Centre in Montreal is dedicated to cognitive informatics and training.aaai.inf.inf. and an interactive intelligent tutor.ca/ICCI2006/
Online Resources
The International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society (AIED) is an interdisciplinary community that organizes conferences and publishes a journal on AI in learning.ed.com/ Gemini Performance Systems used artificial intelligence to build the SWIFT adaptive learning environment as an intelligent tutoring system comprised of an adaptive learning environment.htm Carnegie Mellon University is a leading research institution that uses artificial intelligence in education.edu.For more information on Stottler Henke Associates. an adaptive testing algorithm. It publishes papers on applying artificial intelligence techniques and concepts to the design of systems to support learning.ke-corp. http://pact.uquebec.cmu.Intelligent Tutoring Systems Research Group http://www. http://www.cs. For more info: http://www2.edu/ Carnegie Mellon researchers are also developing a suite of authoring tools called Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools (CTAT) to make tutor development easier and faster for developers and to make it possible for educators without technical expertise to develop such systems. The 2006 ICCI conference was held in July in Bejing.masternewmedia. Taiwan.gemini.uk/aiedsoc.com The Reusable Artificial Intelligence Tutoring System Shell (RAITSS) from Knowledge Engineering allows users to build intelligent tutoring systems. The AIED conferences are held every two years. http://www.stottlerhenke.com Virtuel Age International has an artificial intelligence-based intelligent tutoring system that “dynamically adapts the course according to the learner's existing knowledge base.usyd.ucalgary. see the article by Ong and Ramachandran (2000) in Learning Circuits entitled “Intelligent Tutoring Systems: The What and the How. see: http://www.ca/eng/inde x.virtuelage.htm
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are already available. and not all types of performances can be assessed by a computer. Online assessment can be used to assess both cognitive and practical abilities. in the near future. is now possible with a tech-nique called “latent semantic analysis” (see Landauer. (3) tests and exams that can be taken at any place and time.learningandteaching. and documents for assessors to use. Educational objectives are the key to assessing learning. latent semantic analysis will become part of the repertoire of assess-ment tools readily available to teachers and trainers. evaluation. online assessments are usually part of a formal evaluation plan. While many learning situations do not involve formal testing. Other types of assessment that go well beyond the tell-test model include “assessment for learning” or formative assessment that is used as feedback to the learner. it is not uncommon for an individual’s perform-ance to be informally assessed by both peers and superiors. Alternative ways of categorizing educational objectives include Säljö’s (1979) five “conceptions of learning. the initial setting up of an online assessment system can be expensive. samples. and “assess-ment for credentialing” or
Selected Examples
Questionmark is one of the leading companies that produce online assessment tools. quizzes. When combined into a “360° evaluation. computer-based assessment tools. making it hard to escape assess-ment. or performance samples. self-evaluation. online assessment.” these informal assessments are intended to reveal a particular person’s abilities. for example. Assessment software can generate templates. which is usually much more reliable than human marking. and output. In a business situation. Several different taxonomies of educational objectives exist. For example.htm Computer assessment has many advantages over traditional (“paper-based”) assessment. computer mediated assessment (CMA). Online assessment data can be derived from manual input by assessors or can be the results of automatically marked tests.Assessment Tools
Related terms
Computer assisted assessment (CAA). The Web site contains a
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. These various schemes of organizing educational objectives are summarized and compared by James Atherton (2005) at: http://www. 1956). While assessment in the workplace is often ubiquitous. We can expect that. These advantages include: (1) lower long-term costs when questions/tests are reused. This company has also been involved in developing interoperability standards for online assessments through the IMS Consortium. However. informal evaluations—especially in non-formal settings—may take place at any time. rubrics. the automated scoring of essays. and (4) computer marking. 1998 for an introduction to LSA). aptitudes. (2) instant feedback to students when desired. once only done by a human assessor.” Bateson’s four levels of learning. practical abilities can be assessed using e-portfolios or simulation software. and psychomotor.
Description
Assessment and evaluation are staples of almost all formal educational environments.info/learni ng/solo. The oldest is the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives by Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues (Bloom. quizzes. which was developed for three different domains of learning – cognitive. eassessment. affective. More sophisticated forms of automated. and Biggs and Collis’ (1982) five levels of learning described in their SOLO taxonomy. testing
summative assessment that is used as criteria for judging people in terms of awarding a certification or diploma. Cognitive abilities can be assessed by the right questions—questions that should relate to the educational objectives of teaching in formal settings. computer based assessment (CBA). ones that go well beyond the “tell then test” model.

au/assessing learning/03/online.pdf The University of Melbourne’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education has a guide to online assessments.unimelb.. Gregory (1973). http://www. with over 1. D. http://www.health. http://school. Ortigosa.edu. M.heacademy.ht ml The 10th International Computer Assisted Assessment Conference took place in Scotland in July 2006.org/en/en_mod41. The Web page is entitled “Improving Your Test Questions. Freire.pdf Atherton.de/Bibliography/Misc /cba.learningandteaching. go to the University of Illinois’ Office of Instructional Resources. http://www.htm To improve your skills in question design and test construction.wlv.com/whitepapers A major bibliography on computer-based assessments.html The Wolverhampton University “ComputerBased Assessment Project” can generate over 80.html The Texas Center for Educational Technology lists five categories of assessment resources on its Web site.tcet. http://www. Explore the links at: http://www. A.ulster.com/029.scit. Computer Aided Assessment (CAA) and Language Learning.uk/home. London: Paladin. http://www. http://www.. & Rodríguez. cfm The University of Ulster maintains a listing of tools and resources on Computer Assisted Assessment. Online paper. Steps to an Ecology of Mind.uk/handb ook/caa/ A comprehensive study of computer-based assessments in Canadian and American schools (K-12) is found at: http://www.org/research/re views/10_01.edu/START/assess/ Quintessential Careers' Web site lists Career assessment resources.000 different tests from its
database. http://www.” http://www.uka.com/useguide/asse ssme/online.uk/cticomp/CAA. http://www. G. 8 (3).Kathy Schrock is a librarian with many online resources for teachers.edu/distance/odell/irahe /arc/6too.200 references. Information and Communications Technology for Language Teachers (ICT4LT) Course Module 4. is available from: http://liinwww. Educational Technology & Society.learnflex.oir. (2005).unt.3 Bateson.ifets.uk/newsevents/eventsbox/10icaac/view The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has a long list of assessment tools for the post-secondary level on its Web site.info/journals/8_3/6. James (2005).com/schrockguide/ assess.htm Atkinson.quintcareers.ac..com/tools/rubrics. and Davies. (2004).ict4lt.1: Information and Communications Technology for Language Teachers. P.umuc.htm A paper I wrote on the computer-based assessments of speaking and writing is at: http://www. E.uiuc.edu/dme/exams/ITQ. R.ac. Authoring of Adaptive Computer Assisted Assessment of Free-text Answers.ira..rmcdenver. 5365.ac.com/career_asses sment.htm#2.thinkinggear.html Online Resources for Assessment is a Web site developed by the Star Center in Texas.html
Bibliography
Alfonseca. Obtain a copy at: http://www.tasainstitute. Learning and Teaching: SOLO taxonomy. http://www. http://www..info/learni ng/solo. including a useful listing of assessments and rubrics. with a list of 34 strategies.cshe.html The Rubric Machine from Thinking Gear allows users to build performance-based rubrics for assessment use.nestafuturelab.html The Economics Network has placed a Computer Assisted Assessment handbook online. Carro. Pérez.economicsnetwork.
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. M. http://cba.ac. T. http://www.htm Nesta FutureLab in the UK has published a detailed literature review of all aspects of eassessment.discovery.

recording.podcasting-tools.com/ SearchSync software allows you to search for specific words.com/lipsync/ind ex. including podcasting. D’Eca in Portugal maintains a fantastic list of Web resources on all aspects of learning online.com/ The Education Podcast Network (EPN) tries to bring together educational podcasts in a wide range of subjects that may be useful to teachers in a classroom. http://www.apple.audiotoolsdirect. open source software for recording and editing sounds.rds. http://www.com/resources/dc_media. Audio and video software.uk/podcasting/index. http://www.org/news/20 05/05/20/where_to_submit_your_podcast s.thepodcastnetwork.ltd. sound editing. playback.purdue. and other operating systems. enhancing.com/scwmarapr05sonification.ibritt. http://www.envision.com/ Sound Sense is an article by Ray Girvan in Scientific American on the sense of hearing. http://www. GNU/Linux.scientificcomputing. http://www.php Over 700 tools for digital audio are found at the Audio Tools Direct Web site.htm#Teaching
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.avsmedia. phrases. http://recap.htm For a list of podcasting tools. tools.h tml The Envison Center at Purdue University allows discovery learning through the use of visualization and audio technologies. http://www.com.net/projects/audacity/ A downloadable business textbook using audio only has been developed by David Sturges at the University of Texas. http://64.com/blogs/doug/index. http://www. http://epnweb.>
Replaces full classroom or online sessions when content simply requires delivery. http://www. http://www.co. CD audio extraction. and broadcasting are all found on this site. or sentences from audio Web sites.”
Selected Examples
Apple’s iTunes site is a major distributor of downloadable music tracks and other audio for playback on an iPod or a computer.com/ Robin Good has posted a list on his blog of sites that accept educational podcast materials. freeware.uk/eclipse/Resources/so und. Microsoft Windows.edu/
Online Resources on Audio and Podcasting
Teresa A. htm RECAP Ltd.masternewmedia. http://sourceforge. and utilities for conversion.48. It is available to download for Mac OS X.aspx Everything you wanted to know about podcasting can be found at edupodder. shareware.org/ Check out the many helpful articles on using sound in e-learning.automaticsync.com/AudioTools/inde x. listed on the Sound Resources page at the E-Learning Centre in the UK.com/itunes/ Audacity is free. Can provide supplementary content or be part of a blended solution. http://www. http://www.elearningcentre.php /archives/2004/11/02/the-textbook-isaudio/ A huge selection of educational and other content in audio format is available at the Podcast Network.37/teresadeca/webheads/ online-learning-environments.htm
Meng (2005) adds that “the ability to timeshift content versus traditional broadcast distribution models expands student teaching and learning opportunities significantly.71. including software to record and play podcasts.edupodder. DJ mixing. in the UK provides an online directory of educational podcasts and other podcasting resources.html AVS Audio Tools is a suite of software utilities that can help with audio production and distribution.
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Dozens of tips on how to use audio and other media in an online classroom can be found on Pink Flamingo’s resource lists. go to: http://www.

entitled Emerging E-Learning: new approaches to delivering engaging online learning content. simulations. Reuban Tozman (2005) warns that simply having tools for creating e-learning content (a well-equipped kitchen) does not necessarily lead to great instructional design (outstanding food).
Selected Examples
Microsoft Corporation produces content development tools that can be converted to Web content. please see http://www.Authoring Tools
Related terms
Assessments.com/publications/emerging/emerging. see: http://www. Learning content is a bit like the food served at an outstanding restaurant – creating it depends on having a great chef and a well-equipped kitchen. 2005). and Evaluation) processes. in the end. many learning management systems (LMSs) and learning content management systems (LCMSs) have built-in proprietary authoring systems that are not listed below. Please also see the sections of this report on assessments and simulations for a list of authoring tools developed for those specific content formats. most of which I cover in my first book for Brandon Hall Research (Woodill.
For details on each Microsoft product. content development.com/ Since its acquisition of Macromedia. Development. Current Adobe offerings that are useful in creating online content include the following: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Acrobat After Effects Audition Authorware Breeze Captivate ColdFusion Dreamweaver Director Fireworks Flash Flex FrameMaker FreeHand
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.s html). 2004) a systematic teambased approach to content development based on Instructional Systems Design (ISD) and ADDIE (Analysis. There are as many types of authoring tools as there are types of media. No authoring tool does everything. rapid elearning. many of their products form the basis for the infrastructure used by e-learning applications. The list of authoring tools below includes those tools that produce general Web-based courses or learning objects.microsoft. all content needs to be combined with other content to produce a rich learning experience. In this vein.brandonhall. Further. and. (For details. The Microsoft products most commonly used for developing e-learning (aside from programming languages) include the following: > > > > > > > > > FrontPage Live Communications Server PowerPoint Project SharePoint SQL Server Visio Windows Server Word
Description
Great online learning content is created using sound educational principles coupled with robust content authoring tools. There are other formal approaches to authoring great content. Design. As well. Adobe Corporation is probably the leading source of software tools for creating online content. Tozman argues for a Structured Content Development Model (Tozman. either directly or with third party tools. Implementation.

. and Weber. http://www. In the toolkit.pdf Jung. The system will be design-ed as a scalable. 2003.pdf Maldonado.com/ Advance Chatbot Solutions allows you to try talking to different avatars.co.co.com/ Knowledge Avatars are intelligent tutors that emulate the knowledge of experts. Paper presented to the National Advisory Committee on Computing Qualifications (NACCQ) 2004 Conference.Training Education & Education International Conference. Inc. S.oddcast..com/home/ The DA Group in the UK has a set of “eLearning Mentors. http://www.com/ New York-based Oddcast Inc. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. has designed software that enables businesses to set up marketing programs with avatars that talk to customers. H. Nexus Media. C. and Morishima.) Computer Supported Collaborative Learning 2005: the next 10 years! Mahwah.. Nakajima. B..com/pdf/2/082 503DES-H. (2004). http://ww. Ideally they contain content knowledge as well as teaching expertise. Iwamura. http://www. New Zealand. www.. (2005).uk/chatbots/ An avatar that signs in ASL has been developed by Vcom3D..pdf
Online Resources
In Europe. http://www. Raj (2003). S. M. 25. K.nz/conference04/proce edings_03/pdf/255.de/~aahad/Downloads/AVP_TE SI. In Proceedings of TESI
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. Nass.elearningguild.ac. 2005.vcom3d.Redwood e-Learning uses coaching avatars for online teaching. in cooper-ation with a number of groups. The Affective Virtual Patient: An E-Learning Tool for Social Interaction Training within the Medical Field. Their Surveybots have been shown to be twice as effective in getting people to answer survey questions online. In T.” which are avatars that teach.uk/html/12_solutions/1-2-1_ementor.pdf Seth.gr/Avatar_Conference/
Bibliography
Deuchar.stanford.knowledgeenvironments. The Impact of Avatars and 3D Virtual World Creation on Learning. Koschmann.. A. (2005). Yamada.edu/~kiky/CSCL2005Maldon ado. Ahad. C. Chan (Eds.W.html
2005 .naccq. modular application. D. http://www. offering a large number of supportive functions. Avatar Technology: giving a face to the e-learning interface. Aug.. eLearning Developers’ Journal. Y. Lee.exodus. Brave. Suthers. R.. http://isnm. J. and Nodder. the AVATAR-Conference project aims to develop a toolkit to set up and administer virtual online confer-ences. We Learn Better Together: Enhancing eLearning with Emotional Characters.redwoodelearning. Try them at: http://www. http://www. http://www. users are represent-ed as avatars. and T.daden.tmmy. H.

Blogs
Related terms
Crunkies, screencasting, video blogging, Weblogs

first few pages. Coursey (2005) quotes reader Curt Gowan, who wrote, “Blogging is this decade's citizens' band radio, a fad which booms insanely then drops back to a much, much lower level of activity that is sustainable and actually useful.” The Catalyst Group, in a 2005 study entitled “Net Rage”: A Study of Blogs and Usability, cite the following as problems with blogs: > > > Visitors may not recognize they are on a blog. Blogs do not always identify themselves as blogs. The core purpose of submitting comments to a blog is not universally understood. Few, if any, blogs declare exactly what will happen when a post is submitted. Mainstream consumer expectations for assistance, education, and context far outstrip implementing the blog interface and feature elements.

Description
Weblogs or blogs are online journals that invite readers to add comments, thereby participating in an ongoing online conversation. Blogs are proliferating at a great rate in educational environments because they are so easy to use. A form of online publishing, blogs can be used within a classroom or a community, or they can be open to the general public. For teachers, one issue with Weblogs involves how to evaluate their impact on learners. However, there are many who think the use of blogs is changing the very fabric of formal education. Similarly, blogs are changing corporate training in profound ways. Some of the benefits of “Enterprise Blogging” as identified by Clyde (2005) include the following: > > > > > > > Blogs can be useful sources of information. Blogs are used for communication. Blogs can be used as a project management tool. Blogs can be used as a competitive intelligence tool. Blogs are used for marketing. Blogs are a tool for knowledge management and knowledge sharing. Customer service is an area in which the potential of blogging is being explored. A blog can be used as a newsletter or can take the place of a newsletter as a form of online publishing.

> >

Nevertheless, as the following examples show, the use of blogs in education is here to stay.

Selected Examples
A crunkie is a new type of blog posting that is linked to a certain geographical location. When someone the user knows arrives, if they have subscribed to the blog, their PDA will send them a message about the place they are visiting. Crunkies are the brainchild of Wavemarket, an applications company. http://www.wavemarket.com/ Sony Ericsson has developed a 3.2megapixel blogging phone. These new phones are integrated with Google's Blogger application. http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=c a&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pc3_1_1&z one=pc&lm=pc3&prid=4870 Most blogs are personal journals of individuals, although occasionally there can be multiple contributors to a blog. Most blog writing is unstructured, with a wide range of writing styles. This makes it difficult for search engines to sort out the content of blogs, other than simple word searching. One attempt to change this is called structured blogging. In this approach, the

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However, in a note of caution, Clyde adds, “A potential problem is that blogging does not fit with the corporate culture of many organisations.” As well, hundreds of thousands of people have started a blog but have not added material to it beyond the

Online Resources
Teresa A. D’Eca in Portugal maintains a fantastic list of Web resources on all aspects of learning online, including educational blogging. Find her work at: http://64.71.48.37/teresadeca/webheads/ online-learning-environments.htm#Teaching There are hundreds of blogs on educational computing. A comprehensive listing is maintained by the e-Learning Centre in the UK. http://www.elearningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/Resources/elb logs.htm The Pew Internet and American Life Project has published a report entitled Bloggers: a portrait of the Internet’s new storytellers. http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP%20Bl oggers%20Report%20July%2019%202006. pdf BlogCatalog is a listing of blogs of all types. In March 2006, there were 891 educational blogs listed. http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/educ ation_and_training Susan Herzog, a librarian, has compiled a large bibliography on the topic of blogs. You can scan the entries in BlogBib at: http://blog-bib.blogspot.com/ Michael Bergman has written a very comprehensive guide to setting up a blog, based on his four-month diary of setting up his own blog with WordPress. Get the guide at: http://www.mkbergman.com/wpcontent/themes/ai3/files/BlogGuide/BlogG uide050919.pdf Shawn Callahan in Australia has written a white paper on building a “technician’s blog” to help technicians share information with each other and with the company’s sales force and customers. http://www.anecdote.com.au/papers/Conn ectingPeoplewithContent.pdf Danny Maas has produced a set of online videos on educational blogging that cover all the basics. View them at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=54633740168105430&q=tilt

James Farmer is a frequent and critical contributor to the online debates on the future of technology and education. His blog is at: http://blogsavvy.net/category/blogging-foreducation/ Jay Cross has at least two blogs about elearning – Internet Time and InformL, both worth reading for the latest developments in thinking about e-learning (Jay coined the term “e-learning” back in 1997). http://www.internettime.com/wordpress/ http://informl.com/ Jenna Sweeny, President of an instructional design firm, has a blog on Corporate Training and e-Learning. http://www.cramersweeney.com/cs_id/trai ningblog/ George Siemens of Winnipeg, Canada, is a prolific source on many aspects of elearning. His blog, elearnspace, is a great resource. http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/ Scott Leslie is another prolific blogger in the education space. His matrix of uses of blogs in education is particularly interesting. http://www.edtechpost.ca/gems/matrix2.gi f BlogBurst – market a blog to mainstream media through the BlogBurst network. http://www.blogburst.com/ Track the blogsphere with Blogpulse, which analyzes trends in blog site topics. http://blogpulse.com/ Listings of subject area specific blogs are emerging in academic disciplines. These include the following: MetaxuCafe (literary blogs) http://www.metaxucafe.com/

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According to eighth graders, “blogs are cool.” For a huge list of educational blogs that relate to social studies, check out this site: http://www3.essdack.org/socialstudies/blo gs.htm WWWTools collects interesting links on a number of topics related to online education. To see their list of interesting links on educational blogging, go to: http://m.fasfind.com/wwwtools/m/10171. cfm?x=0&rid=10171 Stephen Downes, a senior researcher with the National Research Council of Canada, has written a guide on how to be noticed and attract readers to your blog. http://www.downes.ca/cgibin/page.cgi?db=post&q=crdate=1122588 384&format=full Waypath is a Blog Discovery Engine that helps users find new blogs to read from the millions in the blogosphere. http://www.waypath.com

browser. The Internet is treated as a virtual space, allowing users to move through it using 3-D tools. http://www.activeworlds.com/ The Mozilla Project set out to develop open source standards for Web browsers and mail clients. Their efforts have resulted in the FireFox Web browser and the Thunderbirds mail client. http://www.mozilla.com/ FireFox allows many “add-ons.” These include extensions (programs that add functionality to FireFox), plugins (programs that convert or play content within a browser), search engines, and “themes.” Themes allow the user to change the look and feel of the browser. For a complete listing of FireFox “add-ons” see: https://addons.mozilla.org/?application=fir efox Flock is an open source browser built on the FireFox code base. It integrates nextgeneration Web technologies such as RSS content feeds, blogs, bookmarking, and photo sharing. Flock was launched in October 2005. http://www.flock.com/ Mark Oelhert has been floating an idea on his blog for an alternative to browsers, called “Webtops.” Read two entries on this topic at: > > http://blogoehlert.typepad.com/eclippi ngs/2006/05/an_evaluation_o.html http://blogoehlert.typepad.com/eclippi ngs/2006/07/continuing_to_p.html

Description
For many, using a browser is synonymous with the World Wide Web. Like all technology innovation curves, the history of browsers shows a “winner” and a number of “losers.” The browser wars of the late 1990s resulted in the demise of the Mos-aic browser, the defeat of the Netscape browser, and the rise to supremacy of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. Once it was clear that the Netscape browser was on the way out, America Online, which owned the rights to Netscape, turned it into an open source project – the Mozilla Firefox browser. (http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/). What most people don't realize is that there are hundreds of smaller browsers out there with very small market share. For example, while Opera, a browser that has been around for a long time, has a small following, it has never been much of a threat to Internet Explorer. (http://www.opera.com) The truth is that browsers themselves may be disappearing, or at least their influence is decreasing. Based on the metaphor of the World Wide Web as a book, they may not be necessary as navigational devices, as more and more applications become directly available through the Internet. This is especially true for business-to-business commerce, where many applications interact with each other automatically. Already there is talk of a "browserless Web” (Cox, 2001).

Online Resources
Wikipedia has the most coverage of browsers, across several articles. These articles include the following: > List of Web Browsers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_we b_browsers Comparison of Web Browsers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compariso n_of_web_browsers Web Browser: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_brow ser

Selected Examples
OmniWeb is a powerful browser with advanced features that is specifically designed to work with Macintosh computers. http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/o mniweb/ Active Worlds is an example of how to navigate the Web without a traditional >

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Well over 100 browsers for the World Wide Web have been developed. Most of these are archived at: http://browsers.evolt.org/ Another comprehensive list of browsers is found at the Web Developers Notes site. http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/desig n/browsers_list.php3

as Stone (2004) points out: “…these systems come with many hidden costs. higher education. and archiving of questions
Description
The advent of e-learning has clearly put traditional classroom teaching on the defensive. http://www. management. classroom response systems with clickers use either infrared rays or radio signals to communicate with a hub that is connected to an instructor's computer. However. The devices can instantly construct histograms of class-wide answers for the instructor and display the histogram to students using an overhead projector. The devices keep students alert and involved. Beatty. clickers. and military settings. This is especially true for postsecondary education where a lecture delivered to hundreds of students in a large classroom often results in alienation between the lecturer and the students. corporate. integrated with other types of learning technologies. both for students and for those supporting their use in the classroom. One response is to try to make the traditional classroom and the large lecture hall more responsive and interactive. 2004): > Students answer multiple-choice questions anonymously without fear of failure.Classroom Response Systems
Related terms
Audience response systems. suggesting that it transforms the traditional lecture in many positive ways. Resembling remote controls used for home entertainment equipment. 2006.einstruction. Students can “click in” at the beginning of a class to register their attendance and can click again to answer questions the instructor poses during the lecture. classroom communication systems. including the following (summarized from Cassidy. increasing their motivation to learn. As multiple brands (typically not interoperable) yoked to different textbooks are adopted on a single campus. training the faculty member to use the software. Clickers permit question types other than multiple-choice. many faculty members who use this technology are enthusiastic about it. There are time-consuming issues (and therefore costs) in terms of installing the receivers and software in a classroom.com/ H-ITT Classroom Response System is a low cost system that is integrated with Pearson
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. or clickers. as is the case with a technology called classroom response systems.
With this technology it is possible to do the following: > > > > Associate an individual with his/her answer Map the classroom and display student answers seat by seat Allow or require students to answer in small groups Support the creation. Student answers are available immediately to the instructor. voting systems
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The devices give students feedback about the limitations of their knowledge.
The use of clickers can become an in-class Web application. This includes the fact that faculty are also more involved and may enjoy the higher level of challenge an interactive class can produce.” In spite of the costs. The use of clickers has several advantages. the costs and headaches multiply.
>
> >
Selected Examples
The following are vendors of Classroom Response Systems: eInstruction’s Classroom Performance System is used in K-12. display. giving almost instant feedback. and supporting students who have trouble ‘activating’ or ‘reactivating’ their clicker. costs can be an issue.

2002.ctcevents.asp?refe rrer=parent&backto=linkingpublicationresul ts.diglib.collabtech.criticalmethods. http://www. 4.org/collab/inde x.asp?bhcp=1 Bachler.htm Butler. Collaborative Strategies.ac.pdf Bonk.The 2006 Collaborative Technologies Conference was held in June in Boston.aspx?docid=a g9j97p7pg73_ahh5gqp63qx4 The Collaboration Loop is a Web site containing newsletters and articles on all aspects of collaboration in corporate environments. M. (2003). D. J.com/publication/ne wsletter/publications_newsletter_septembe r03.kolabora. Shadbolt.. M. (2004). http://eprints.. a not-for-profit organization chartered to work in the public interest. http://collaboration. 2006.com/(1y2d1on52jk gieqpokgy3tzh)/app/home/journal. http://www. http://cde.txl Computer Supported Cooperative Work is a journal on collaboration in the workplace published by Springer. N. Creating an eCommunity.ca/softeval/ David Wooley maintains a very comprehensive list of Web-based collaborative work environments. S. J.springerlink. scientific. http://www. and businesses to provide collaborative educational. March/April 2006. J.uk/12081/ Beshears.org/index.1:100250.usabilityfirst.asp?articleid=41&zoneid=3 0 Bruck. E-Learning and the Digital Library: Opportunities for Collaboration. Models of collaboration.1
Bibliography
Alexander. http://www.htm Athabasca University maintains a Web site of reviews of online collaborative tools. Brazil.com/writings.writely.collaborate.org/tools.com/groupware/in dex. September.com/ The Collaborative Learning Environments Sourcebook is a free e-book describing the entire domain of collaboration in e-learning.org/forums/fall2002/dlfnov2002. http://www. Japan on July 13-14. Bill (2004).html
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. In Proceedings of Grid Learning Services Workshop (GLS 2004). D. Curtis (2002).” http://www. T.com/content/templat es/clo_feature. D.com/webconf/workspa ces.collaborationloop. 2002. http://www. also has a great list of collaboration tools.soton. Nov. and Tate. http://www.educause. K. communities.org Global SchoolNet Foundation (GSN) partners with schools.. http://www. and Coleman.mitre.edu/apps/er/erm06/ erm0621. Chief Learning Officer. Maceió.com Kolabora is a news site for the rapidly growing corporate collaboration community. Q2Learning White Paper. ChenBurger.ecs.. Dalton. Fred (2002).thinkofit. Collaboration in the Semantic Grid: a Basis for e-Learning.. http://www.0: a new wave of innovation for teaching and learning? EDUCAUSE Review. Potter. Komzak. and cultural learning activities that prepare students for the workforce and help them become literate and responsible global citizens.. A.com/View.html Athabasca University provides a list of “Collaborative Learning Activities Using Social Software Tools” authored by Donna Cameron and Terry Anderson. also known as “groupware. 2003. http://www. Nov. http://www. Eisenstadt. Buckingham Shum. Web 2. Sign up for free at: http://www. De Roure. 41(2)...com/ The second international conference on Collaboration Technologies (CollabTech 2006) was held in Tsukuba. Bryan (2006). Collaborative Tools for e-Learning. S.bruck. Presentation to the DLF Fall Forum. Its reviews of collaboration tools are also useful.clomedia.htm Mitre Corporation..globalschoolnet.htm
The Usability First Web site has built a comprehensive list on Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW).athabascau.. http://www. Page. Michaelides. http://www.

The main benefits of a competency-based system are that employees have a clear set of objectives and expectations for job performance.org/competencies/in dex. hiring and appraisal systems are more fair and open.Competency Tracking Software
Related terms
Competencies. Competency tracking involves developing a competency model. and then having a mechanism to check off when competencies are achieved. David McClelland. who developed modern quality control methods for Japanese industries. The major problem with competency tracking is that there is no uniform or
Selected Examples
The IMS Global Learning Consortium has developed a Reusable Definition of Competency or Educational Objective (RDCEO). skills. For a large list of competencies for physicians. entering defined competencies into a matrix.net/products/cando Physicians need to be able to gather data. performance appraisal.pdf CanDo is an open source student competency tracking system. Edwards Deming. skills inventory. Competency tracking and gap analysis are features of more advanced learning management systems (for examples of LMSs that do this.org. https://launchpad. diagnose symptoms. which can be used to identify gaps in competencies and recommend the necessary steps for remedial action. advocated using competencies rather than IQ as criteria in hiring. 2005).itsc. skills verification. a competency “is an area of knowledge or skill that is critical for producing key outputs. see below) and performance or talent management systems. and carry out proper procedures.” Many training departments track employee performance by breaking tasks into required competencies and then testing for each one. talent management
coordinate system for skills verification nor methods for tracking competencies. Organizations and individuals can have identifiable competencies (Cooper. a Harvard psychologist. abilities and behaviors of an excellent performer. Download the documentation on this definition at: http://www. organizational and personal goals are tied together.
Description
According to Sanders (2001). go to: www. see the competencies
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. CanDo is built on the SchoolTool platform.” it started in 1950 with Dr. competency-based training.imsproject. Competency-based systems can also be overly elaborate and bureaucratic and unresponsive to changing workplaces (Parkin. 2000).” Competency tracking allows a system to build an inventory of skills. Known in the early days as the “quality movement. SchoolTool is a project to develop a common global school administration infrastructure freely available under an Open Source license. In 1973. The idea of measuring and tracking competencies in the workplace is a legacy of the command and control experience of World War II and became an important management focus after the war ended. Rigorous application of this competency definition in Singapore resulted in a Competency Definition Information Model with the following elements: > > > > > Identifier Title Description Definition Metadata
For more on this model. W. and work processes are measurable and standardized across organizational and geographical boundaries. Wagner (2000) defines a competency model as “a collection of related descriptions of the knowledge.sg/events/lstc_seminar_Oct04 /Competencies.html The IMS definition of a competency was developed as the IEEE Competency Definition Standard.

Data stored in a database often needs some transformation.pdf Iskander. and Smyth. Piatetsky-Shapiro. B. Data mining: a great opportunity for schools. Grigoriev.asp Icosystem creates customized tools that replicate the detailed behavior of real systems whose complexity pushes them beyond the reach of traditional analytical approaches.uk/people/staff/aaf/ book-springer-ukc.reeltwo. can generate meaningful results for the teacher.org/home/eng/p roducts/product_profile/smart. P. California.) E-Learning Networked Environments and Architectures: A Knowledge Processing Perspective.hkuspace.
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. P. K. Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Using Evolutionary Algorithms. http://imej. K.edu. U. http://pami. New York: Springer. Grieser. M Fayyad. 1996.pdf Fayyad. by applying fuzzy logic. What’s Not.amstatonline.ca/pub/hammouda/ hammouda-elearning. SmartTutor can identify the weaknesses of a learner in an e-course and advise the learner on how to make efficient revisions.convera. P. Uthurusamy.pdf Excalibur is a deep search engine that organizes the Web into millions of categories and then uses a data mining approach to find information. Lange. Robert (2002). Smyth. 1--34. (1996). From Data Mining to Knowledge Discovery in Databases.wfu. when used with a particular data mining algorithm. In Advances in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. http://www.pdf SmartTutor is an innovative online learning platform for deploying e-courses. http://www. Presentation at the Data Mining Workshop. which serves as a basis for knowledge extraction in e-learning environments.org/ASBO/files/ccPageCont entdocfilename000805705546SBA_Feb_2 002_pages. 68(8). Alex (2002). http://www. M. (2004).. and Kamel. (2000).com/ Hammouda and Kamel (2006) have written a chapter in a new book that presents an innovative approach for performing data mining on documents. and Tschiedel. G.php?page=n ews&article=2002100101 TADA-Ed (Tool for Advanced Data Analysis in Education) is a data mining platform dedicated to teachers.com/
Online Resources
The KDnuggets Web site lists resources for data mining. One of the functionalities that differentiates SmartTutor from other online learning platforms is that. http://www. (cited in Luan and Willett. G. (2006). Thalheim. http://www.org/sections/qp/qpr/QPRC2001/invi ted/Deveaux. B.ac.html
Bibliography
De Veaux.. Piatetsky.au/%7Ekalina/inde x.com/index. http://www. In Pierre.kdnuggets. Data Mining in e-Learning.. allowing them to visualize and mine students' online exercise work with the aim of discovering pedagogically relevant patterns. R. and Web mining.. pp.html Hammouda. Feb.com/gpspubs/aimag -kdd-overview-1996-Fayyad.com Dr Kalina Yacef is an Educational Data Mining Specialist at the University of Sydney..uwaterloo. S. knowledge discovery.ca/pub/hammouda/ hammouda-elearning. See a list of her research in this area at: http://www.kdnuggets.classified the full set of more than 12 million MEDLINE documents classified against the Gene Ontology terms. School Business Affairs. 2001) http://www. http://pami. and R.edu/articles/2005/1/03/in dex.pdf Jantke. Samuel (Ed. http://www. AAAI Press/MIT Press. Data Mining: What’s New. Long Beach.cs.. G.icosystem.uwaterloo.soul. TADA-Ed contains preprocessing facilities so that users can transform the database tables to a format that. text mining. RetrievalWare is a knowledge discovery engine for unstructured data.pdf Freitas.kent. rule-based inferencing and data mining technologies.cs.usyd. Australia. 13-16 http://asbointl. New York: Springer. edited U. Both products are from
Convera.

pdf The Adaptive Technology Resource Centre at the University of Toronto has an online Decision Support Tool.net/index.une. 4) develop an action plan. The software then recommends books that you might like to read. GrassGro is being used at the University of New England to explore interactions within grazed ecosystems over time.com/ Which Book asks you to make a set of choices based on up to four criteria. 2) categorize. http://www. Frize and Frasson (2000) point out that teaching decision making processes can be supported using decision support tools. 5) carry out a survey. 3) vote/prior-itize.sal. http://www.tkk.com/ Facilitate. New software has recently emerged to help us make such decisions. which provides predictive outcomes (both biological and economic) for agricultural systems in a wide diversity of environments.jsp The Joint Gains software has been successfully applied as an interactive training tool in the e-learning of negotiation analysis. The software is also useful in teaching about decisionmaking processes.edu.com is a Web site featuring online collaboration software for decision making. http://www. http://www. http://www.html Decisionarium is a site for interactive multicriteria decision support. http://www. Decision-support systems include the following: > > > > > Scoring systems (to add up weighted scores to guide decision making) Bayesian models (recommendations based on probabilities) Heuristic reasoning (expert systems based on empirical rules-of-thumb) Case-based reasoning (looking at the evidence for a decision) Artificial neural networks (using parallel processing to work through a mass of data) Cognitive agents (artificial intelligence routines that “think” about decisions) Intelligent tutoring (watching for patterns and errors. The activities supported are 1) brainstorm. such as deciding which resources to deploy in a given situation.fi/Publications/pdffiles/mkos. in their case study of medical education. It has been used for e-learning content in negotiation analysis. and 6) document results.utoronto. with tools for individual decision making and for group collaboration and negotiation.whichbook.hut. and recommending remedial action)
> >
According to Bahlis (2004).fi/ BNH Expert Software is a Canadian company that produces decision support software for e-learning.au/dss/grassgro/index . http://www.facilitate. For example.Decision Support Software
Related Terms
Artificial intelligence
>
Duplicate Programs That Run Effectively
Selected Examples
GrassGro is a commercial computer software package developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).decisionarium. the using decision support software in corporate training can have the following benefits for a business: > > > > > Align Training with Organizational Goals Improve Human Performance Reduce Time to Competency Select the Right Blend of Delivery Options Consider Internal vs.bnhexpertsoft.html Meetingworks for Windows is a local area network (LAN) based group decision support system (GDSS) used when decision makers
Description
In education and training we make choices all the time.ca/atrc/research/deci sion_support_tool/index. External Solutions
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To access the articles. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Visualization in Biomedical Computing Conference.loaz.fogscreen. Dec.. M. Garrett. Largest LCD and video projection. it published a special issue on “Urban Screens. H. Government.org/citation.uk/index. Controlling the electronic whiteboard’s
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.cfm?coll=GUI DE&dl=GUIDE&id=718981 Mohamed. Canada.pdf Wang. http://blog. Vancouver. A. See a demo at: http://www. JISC Technology Watch White Paper.firstmonday.de/mitarbeiter/khaireel/publication s. Tim Wang’s e-Learning Blog. London: Springer.com/ ProVision 3D display technology shows 3-D images that seem to jump right out of the screen. and Pizer.. K.. Hirota. 2005. http://ad. Richards (Ed. http://portal.cfm?name=tec hwatch_ic_reports2005_published Fuchs. http://www.thin air! It is a screen you can walk through! http://www. S..com/tags/digital%20 paper?start=0 T.jisc.provisionentertainment.). He is programming computers to recognize and interpret gestures on whiteboards made using a digital pen. Whitton.org/issues/special 11_2/ Khaireel Mohamed is a leading researcher in the area of digital ink and paper. Proceedings of the World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate.informatik. (2005). pages 3053-3068.” those giant electronic billboards that are becoming pervasive in our society. 2005.. M. Germany. and Ottmann. Pisano. Healthcare. http://thejournal.php
writing surface without cluttered toolboxes: Shifting the focus back to content delivery.unifreiburg.com/
Online Resources
The Technorati Web site contains numerous references and links to articles on digital paper. Oct. 3.com/the/topics/display/ First Monday is a journal on new technologies. Towards Performing Ultrasound-Guided Needle Biopsies from within a Head-Mounted Display. W. E.ac.acm. see: http://www.. Tim (2005). Livingston. Journal has a list of the latest in advanced digital display technologies. (1996). State.php/2 005/03/12/largest_lcd_and_video_projecti on
Bibliography
Advanced Display Technologies.informatik. T. see: http://ad.de/mitarbeiter/khaireel/authorsCo py/2005-eLearn. and Higher Education (E-Learn 2005).H. In G.E. For a list of his publications.unifreiburg.technorati. Hamburg.com/timwang/index. In 2005. G. http://www.

ought to be part of the educational research agenda” (quoted in Godwin-Jones.facebook. Educational games and simulations now appear on cell phones.hive7. identity work. Constance Steinkuehler.com/ http://www. serious games.freescale. individual and collaborative learning across multiple multimedia.com/ http://www. as such.com
Description
Learning through playing games (also known as “serious games”) is one of the hottest areas of emerging e-learning.html Clickteam in the UK offers its Games Factory software that promises the ability to produce a credible game in less than a half hour. One interesting phenomenon is “modding” – modifying existing game engines to create new educational games. http://www. The toolset. The theory of educational games is developing as the Game Achievement Model (GAM). see: http://news. For a brief review of these tools.myspace. create. the BT players shot ideas out of their cell phones. http://www.”
Freescale Semiconductor produces CodeWarrior Game Development Tools for both Sony and Nintendo game platforms. a subsidiary of Avid Technologies.microsoft. games. has game development tools
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.com/xna/ Softimage. helping speed up the game creation process. from the University of Wisconsin. Making such changes is part of what modding is about. and even share games with other members of the Thinking Worlds community.com/Microsoft+developer +tools+prep+for+next+Xbox/2100-1043_35603082. http://www. simulations. and Second Life. play. virtual reality
Selected Examples
The latest trend in online games involves 3D virtual social environments where each player is represented by a changeable avatar and where the “play” of the game depends on the direction the collectivity wants to take. Dr. 2005). Cyworld.com/ In 2005.com/webapp/sps/site /homepage. allows members of a game development team to work together.jsp?nodeId=0127268507 Microsoft has released a set of game development tools for the Xbox video game console.secondlife.com http://us.com. has found that massive multiplayer online games are “sites for socially and materially distributed cognition. and learning (Amory.cyworld. Facebook. This game allows users to play.Gaming Development Tools
Related terms
Immersive environments. which is an attempt to provide a framework to understand the relationships between story. and traditional educational publishers have announced gaming initiatives for their higher education markets. writing about “first person shooter games. Major learning management platforms have added simulation or gaming extensions that will allow them to launch games and track results.com Thinking Worlds is an educational games authoring engine. multimodality 'attentional spaces' and rich meaningmaking and.” says that “in the mod world. Examples include Hive7. edit. http://www.com/ http://www. Microsoft announced a version of Visual Studio for producing computer games. MySpace.clickteam. There is a free 30-day trial version. ‘shooter’ should not necessarily be taken as a negative: the Shell players shot firefighting foam. Thinking Worlds is based on well researched and proven learning principles and has already been used to develop highly engaging games in many subject areas.thinkingworlds. Marc Prensky (2003). 2003). dubbed XNA Studio. Online gaming and role-playing games are expected to take in more than $3 billion in 2007. complex problem solving. Try them out at: > > > > > http://www.

Artificial intelligence techniques. http://www. Aug.
Selected Examples
The Institute for Neural Computation – Machine Perception Lab. Basic Hand Gesture Recognition for Human-
The major educational purpose of gesture recognition is to enable the computer to have a better model of the user in order to respond more appropriately. UK is on interactive actions and intentions for achieving multimodal human-machine interaction: http://mmi. Report No.soton. http://www. affective computing. Gesture and facial recognition technologies refer to a combination of computer hardware and software that can sense and understand a user’s gestures and facial expressions. artificial intelligence. The end goal of using this technology is to create a system that can identify a gesture or facial expression and then use that information to personalize the interaction or to control a particular device attached to the system. 2003. is investigating “how the brain works by developing embodied systems that solve problems similar to those encountered by the brain. http://www...fg2008. 2008.ucsd.fg2006. http://www. robotics
this area will have a major impact on the effective use of artificial intelligence.Gesture and Facial Recognition
Related terms
Affective computing. FG2006. Ludwig-Maximilians University.nl/~maja/
Bibliography
Allen. eLearning Developers’ Journal. (2005). will be held in Amsterdam on September 10-13. Evoking Gestures in SmartKom − Design of the Graphical User Interface.com/pdf/2/081 803DES. UK.smartkom.com/~ccohen/gesture . was held in Southampton.nl/ Charles Cohen maintains a Web site on gesture recognition research. Learner-interface Design: recognizing learner gestures. Munich. Lombardi. Recognizable learner gestures can include the following: > > > > > > > > > > > Cursor movement Single-lick Double-click Rollovers Drag and drop Click and place Keyboard response Voice command Drawing with a stylus Iris tracking Head pointers (mainly used for persons with a physical disability)
Online Resources
The 7th International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition. Michael (2003).pdf Borghi.uk/ The 8th International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition.pdf Beringer. Nicole (2001). F. FG2008. A system’s recognition of the user’s actions and intentions becomes another form of communication between computers and humans. L. looking for particular sequences. Maja Pantic of Imperial College. April 10-12 2006.org/reports/ReportNR-03. Advances in
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. The same techniques can be used to automatically scan and index video. London. M. at the University of California.” http://mplab. such as Markov models. 3.ecs.cybernet. For a list of papers: http://www. March. and robotics in elearning. play an important role in gesture and facial expression recognition.html Research by Dr.tudelft.elearningguild. 18. haptics.ac.edu/
Description
We all use gestures and facial expressions to communicate. including identifying commercial products. Porta.

Create networkable force feedback programs using drag-and-drop program blocks.immersion. > > http://wwwpercro. http://www.se/index. There are distinct subcategories in the field of haptics. http://haptex. Finally.mpbtechnologies. and exoskeletal devices can be obtained from Immersion Corporation.html SensAble Technologies develops haptic devices that make it possible for users to touch and manipulate virtual objects.pureform. http://www.asp Body-based devices include gloves. gloves.html http://www. Haptic devices and interfaces are generally used with 3-D virtual environments to give a sense of realism to the action taking place within the virtual world. When used approp-riately.org/
Description
Haptics involves transmitting information through the sense of touch or force feedback. Haptic devices come in many forms.
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. haptics helps make elearning more relevant to the learner. Technology has advanced to the point that the sense of touch and force can be experienced in real time over a network.sssup.forcedimension. who becomes directly involved in experiencing something.ca/mpbt/haptics/hand_contro llers/freedom/f6_news_touching. a “surgeon” in Canberra was able to teach a “medical trainee” in Montreal the different steps to a gall bladder extraction.in conjunction with a scanning probe microscope . such as docking two molecules to see if they fit together.handshakeinteractive. including pens. touch
Selected Examples
The “Museum of Pure Form” is a virtual reality system where the user can interact through the senses of touch and sight with digital models of 3-D art forms and sculptures.Haptics
Related terms
Force feedback.it/projects/pureform. http://www. joysticks/ joypads. Haptic devices can also be used to provide feedback from hands-on models or simulators and to try out procedures at a nanotechnology level. http://www. active object manipulation is more engaging than passively watching something happen on a screen.ch/ SenseGraphics is a company that specializes in open source development of haptics and graphics software. HAPTEX is a research project on multimodal perception of textiles in the virtual environment.com/
Touch is one of the most important sensations for growth and learning.sensable.now allow the nanotechnology and nanoscience community not only to look at atoms and molecules but even to touch them.html “Force Dimension's haptic force feedback devices .0 Virtual Touch Toolbox for Control Systems .sensegraphics.” http://www. and force-feedback mice.com/fd/avs/ho me/ Handshake proSENSE™ 2.miralab.com/secti on/view/?fnode=24 The project "HAPtic sensing of virtual TEXtiles" (HAPTEX).com/products/phanto m_ghost/phantom. including the following: > > > > > Proprioceptive (general sensory information about the body) Vestibular (the perception of head motion) Kinaesthetic (the feeling of motion in the body) Cutaneous (sensory information from the skin) Tactile (the sense of pressure experienced through the skin)
Using the CANARIE advanced high-speed network CA*net 4. especially when training motor skills and physical relationships. suits.unige. Read the press release at: http://www.

com/stories/ afp_asiapacific_business/view/126978/1/.usask.cfm?page= 961 The Hertfordshire Grid for Learning gives teachers many resources on the proper use of interactive whiteboards.shtml PC Tablet Developer is an online serial that publishes all types of material on tablet computer use.swan.com/software/gadge ts/microsoft-prototypes-footpad-computerinterface-157916. This device allows handwritten notes to be downloaded to a computer via a USB interface.org. http://www.com/ Microsoft Corporation has developed a footpad computer interface.logitech.thegrid. http://www. Sony Corporation demonstrates five futuristic ways of interacting with a computer.cs.edfacilities.becta. books and journal articles on the educational uses of interactive whiteboards.co.net/display.org/rl/interactive_w hiteboards. Users can dial by waving the phone to write the number in the air instead of pressing a keypad and to erase items by shaking the phone up and down. The agency has a comparison page of different brands of interactive whiteboards.com/TabletPC/Door/2030 1 Over the years.com/index.uk/calculators/ On their “Experience Computing” Web site.org. http://www.devx.htm Graphics Interface is the oldest continuously scheduled conference in the field. http://www. http://www.html
Online Resources
The National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF) has a resource list of links.smarttech.uk/eclipse/Resources/wh iteboards.wired. GI consistently attracts high-quality papers from around the world on recent advances in interactive systems.elearningcentre.h tml The e-Learning Centre in the UK maintains a list of resources on using electronic whiteboards.com/Bluet ooth-Overview/Bluetooth-Training.cfm/product s/features/digitalwriting/US/EN Imagine writing mathematical equations on a whiteboard and having them solved in front of your eyes.php Wacom Technology Corporation is a supplier of graphics tablets and pens.edna. http://www. http://www.com/wired/archive/5 .net/Fun/SonyDesign/200 3/home. http://www.au/edna/page4588.html Samsung's new SCH-S310 mobile phone is equipped with motion-recognition capabilities.wacom.cs.lifehacker.uk/learning/ict/man aging/resources/whiteboards.Logitech has developed the io2 Digital Writing System. http://whiteboards.cfm The Education Network Australia has a Web page of links to articles on interactive
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. html Smart Technologies makes a series of interactive whiteboards. See their advice and resources at: http://www.thewirelessdirectory.edu. http://www. http://www.aclearn. Wired Magazine has published a number of articles on digital ink and digital paper.ac.channelnewsasia. Although this technology has been around for a few years.htm The Wireless Directory Web site lists Bluetooth products and services and provides extensive information on this wireless format.com
whiteboards. and graphic. http://www. 3) throw. consisting of a pen and a charger. human computer interaction. 2) roll.uk/ The Community Learning Resource Web site supports adult and community learning. The site contains reviews of interactive whiteboards and tablet technologies. http://www. and 5) build. it is constantly being improved and updated. The “Weapons of Maths Construction” project at the University of Swansea in Wales can do just that.ca/~gutwin/gi/ Becta is a UK agency that supports education departments in UK in their use of computers.sony. Following are three such articles: > http://www. These methods are 1) touch.05/ff_digitalink_pr. http://www. http://www. 4) bend.

and collaboration Use of 2-D and 3-D Virtual environments Service Oriented Architecture integration with other enterprise systems. But there are a number of innovations in LMSs and VLEs that distinguish an “ordinary” system from one that is more advanced. the widespread adoption by institutions of the current generation of
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. Innovations include the following: > > > > Adaptability/Personalization Artificial Intelligence/Intelligent Tutoring Automatic generation of motivational messages Move from managing presentations and testing to learner control.” Others are developing new views of what a learning management system can become.. and there are a number of significant innovations in 4th generation learning managements systems. they should mostly come along automatically when the developer chooses to use the framework). Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS).Learning Management Systems
Related terms
Campus portals. the technology standards implemented by the framework should be general rather than education-specific to encourage the re-use of relevant groupware applications not originally designed for e-learning purposes. elearning portals. Part of what the framework should provide is a set of user interface primitives. while others worry that the current model of LMSs has become entrenched to the point of inhibiting innovation. 2005). learning integration
MLE/VLEs is in danger of creating a de facto global e-learning monoculture. especially human resources/“talent management” systems
Description
Learning management systems (LMS) – the term used in North America – and Managed Learning Environments (MLE) or Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) – terms used in Great Britain – are not “emerging technologies” per se. Morrison (2004) contends “that because key decisions and investments are already being (or have been) made. conversation. as this category of software has been around for about ten years. But those primitives should be inheritable by applications with as little specific programmer effort as possible (i. Whenever possible. Course Management Systems (CMS). thus reducing the usability challenge of mixing applications that were designed by different groups of people.e.
>
>
>
>
There is considerable debate in the elearning field as to whether or not LMSs have a future (Farmer. Content management. There have been several “generations” of learning management systems: > 1st Generation LMS – Stand-alone application running on a single computer with or without timesharing terminals 2nd Generation LMS – Web-based application with client-server architecture 3rd Generation LMS – Web-based application with N-tier architecture (separation of application into components and independent layers of functioning) 4th Generation LMS – Web-based application with distributed content that uses Web services and service oriented architecture (SOA) >
> >
Feldstein (2005) suggests that the nextgeneration of learning management systems should have the following characteristics: > LMSs should provide a framework that makes it as easy as possible for programmers with different skill levels in different programming languages to build and integrate learning tools to serve specialized teaching and learning needs.

http://www. http://dspace. a consortium of colleges and universities who have agreed to share learning objects.edu Koha is a New Zealand based online library covering all subjects.po National Science Digital Library (NSDL) is a great source for learning materials in science fields. http://web.cdlib. http://mlor.arizona.org/ LRC is an international community for sharing materials in higher education. http://learnware.rice.net/project.ca/projects/CCC O/cloe_stories.merlot. preserves. with a focus on information literacy.org/Home.thegateway.profetic. It is open to any member of the academic or research community.educanext.org/ The Ontario E-Learning Object Management Repository has been set up by the Ministry of Education to serve learning objects to Ontario schools and post-secondary institutions.fedora.unsw.lrc3.info FLORE stands for the French Learning Object Repository for Education.org/ubp Fedora is a general-purpose repository system developed jointly by Cornell University Information Science and the University of Virginia Library. http://lester. http://nsdl.edu/DesktopDefault.edu.mcli. http://ideas. http://www.au:8010/ The Maricopa Learning Exchange is a warehouse of learning objects at the high school and college levels. http://dlist. http://www.com/ IDEAS provides Wisconsin educators with teacher reviewed resources for grades K-12.ca/cgibin/dlorn/dlorn. a senior researcher at the National Research Council in Canada.org/ CLOE stands for the Cooperative Learning Object Exchange.org/
Selected Examples
Following is a list of some of the many learning object repositories: The California Digital Library supports the libraries of the University of California.html EducaNext is a service that supports creating and sharing knowledge for higher education.koha. and distributes digital research material.uvic.utoronto.cgi DSpace is a digital repository system that captures. http://www. http://www. http://www. indexes. and they can be general or subject specific.html The Digital Library of Information Science and Technology is based at the University of Arizona. http://www. with almost 15.llearn.org/ LESTER (Learning Science and Technology Repository) is an online community and database focused on innovations in learning science and technology (LST). http://www. stores.dist.downes. http://www.ca/hrd/flore/ Gateway to 21st Century Skills contains thousands of lesson plans and teaching
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. http://www.sir.lolaexchange.php LoLa Exchange is a place for sharing high quality learning objects. http://www.000 items.
resources for grades K-12.org goENC contains resources for K-12 science and math.maricopa. http://www.aspx? tabindex=0&tabid=1 LLEARN is a repository of materials for language learning.goenc.Repositories for learning objects can be simple or complex (“rafts” or “battleships” to use Derek Morrison’s metaphor). which profiles innovative research projects and researchers.oise.edu/mlx/ MERLOT is the largest repository of learning objects.wisconsin.edu/ DLORN (Distributed Learning Object Repository Network) is a repository set up by Stephen Downes.ca/acg/eduontari o_d/secure/elearning/ PROFETIC is a French learning object repository. hosted by the University of Victoria in Canada. http://www.org/index.uwaterloo. What is stored in learning object repositories is not standardized in terms of formats but represents a wide range of educational media.

including to do the following: > > > Enhance visitor experiences using dynamic location-based content Provide access to specific content irrelevant roams.clarklabs.com/ Frapper is a Web site that allows you to create custom maps and tags them with information. galleries.http://www. geocaching. Usually these visualizations are overlaid onto a map. navigation. The two technologies most prevalent in locationbased e-learning are the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). more demands for a person’s attention. Department of Defense.com Google Earth is an amazing view of the earth.com/ MapInfo .org/ ESRI.esri. and wearable computers.frappr.http://www. including the following: > > > Information services and tour guides delivered in place Educational games that have a geographical component Support for field trips in which locationbased technologies provide learning materials during a visit to a specific place Gathering data in a specific location for later analysis Personalization of a visit in real-time based on where a person is located at any given moment Learning games within a specified geographical area >
> >
>
As computer devices become smaller and more mobile. However. PDAs. with abilities to show the location of almost any service or feature that is
> >
>
In the cultural sector. The Global Positioning System consists of 24 satellites owned by the U. including cell phones. Bensford (2005) identifies some of the educational uses of location-based technologies.http://www.S.
Selected Examples
The main players in the GIS market include the following: Cadcorp . laptops. tours
and exhibits for a variety of purposes. and security issues.com/ Intergraph .
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. including privacy concerns. galleries. including better security due to location tracking capabilities Analyze visitor traffic (for planners) Help users access relevant content from the Web during and after museum tours Improve accessibility for visitors with disabilities
Description
Location-based technologies are used in elearning when geographical position is important to an educational experience. This allows GPS receivers to triangulate their own position to within a few meters by taking bearings from at least three visible satellites. gaming consoles. to track their location and interact with educational experiences that use that information. Each satellite continually broadcasts its position and the time. as with any new technology. there are potential disadvantages to locationbased technologies. location-based systems are found in museums.cadcorp.Location Based Technologies
Related terms
Ambient content. personal media players.http://www. findability.intergraph. or exhibits Improve visitor services by providing information on nearby facilities such as restaurants and gift shops Provide tour management information. http://www.com/ Clark Labs .http://www. users will be able to use a variety of devices. A Geographic Information System enables the geographic aspects of a body of data to be visualized. proximity tools.mapinfo.

programmableweb.aspx
Selected Examples
Mike Malloch has posted a set of examples of educational mashups on del. and Padron. G.jsp?link=/article/06/07/28/31FEma shup_1.elearnspace. (2004).mashupfeed. July 25. Dec. Curriculum as Mashup.icio. Adopting and Adapting Enterprise Technologies for Use in Education.deitel.com/the_thread /techbeat/archives/mash-ups/index.techlearning. Dodero. A Framework Based on Web Services Composition for the Adaptability of Complex and Dynamic Learning Processes. 2006. http://www.htm Siviter. http://www. > > http://www.html Hof.infoworld. http://www. Learning Technology newsletter. Business Week Online.icio. and Oliveira. Elearnspace.pdf Seimens.html Warlick.bctechnology. Vol. As Warlick (2006) has noted. Galen (2006). a writer for Business Week.htm Torres. and mutate. http://ww6. match. Vol. Enterprise mashups.businessweek. Learning Technology newsletter. George (undated).com/@@76IH*oc Q34AvyQMA/magazine/content/05_30/b3 944108_mz063. Learning Solutions.0 APIs. Paul (2002).com/products/print_fr iendly.org/wiki/Mashup_%28 web_application_hybrid%29
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.org/resources/web services. 2005. http://www.ieee. including a matrix of 87 sites with APIs that interact with each other. January 2004 http://lttf. C. July 28. J.us/Mike_Malloch/webtech/M ASHUP
Online Resources
Mashup Feed gives the latest and greatest examples of actual mashups.com/ Emily Chang is a San Francisco Web designer with a large offering of Web links. January 2004 http://lttf. C. Robert (2005).pdf Stacey.businessweek. http://en.com/ http://www. E-Learning for the BC Tech Industry.us.com/blog/main/ar chives/2006/03/curriculum_as_m.
Bibliography
Gruman.com/ma trix
Deitel maintains a “mashups resource center” with diverse articles and resources on this topic. 2006. as it draws materials from many different sources in a network of distributed servers. http://www. 6. and Services: welcome to web hybrid e-learning applications. J.Mashups and Web services are alternative ways of accessing educational content that need to be taken into account by any LMS that is tracking learning activities.html The Wikipedia entry for Mashup (Web application hybrid) contains links to other mashup sites.html Rob Hof. SOAP.. May 15. Issue 1.com/mashups/MashUps ResourceCenter.org/learn_tech/issues/janua ry2004/learn_tech_january2004.com/go/ehub/cate gory/C49 Programmable Web claims to keep “you up to date with the latest on mashups and the new Web 2. Many have educational value. http://www. Mashups. online curriculum is more and more becoming a mashup.wikipedia.operitel. Mix. (2006). Her links in the category of mashups are found at: http://www. Issue 1. 6. http://del. 2006. Douglas (2004).ieee. 6.com/statics/pstac ey-dec0602. http://www.emilychang. has produced about a dozen articles on mashups in business for his magazine. March 6. E-Learning Interoperability & Web Services.com/publications. techLEARNING.html Woodill.” It has many examples of mashups. Web Services. David (2006).programmableweb. 2002. Infoworld. http://blogs.org/learn_tech/issues/janua ry2004/learn_tech_january2004.

and mentoring. conversational learning. such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). personalization. improved identity creation.
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. and performance-based assessment… e-learning independent of location. there were estimated to be 1. and these sophisticated phones have the processing power of a mid-1990s PC. in Japan. However. 2004). video) and distributed databases.” The Mobilearn Project (2003) advocates for “a new mlearning architecture [that] will support creation. pervasive computing. powerful support for effective learning. cellular telephones. cell phones. tablet PCs. Cited in Prensky. time and space. He found that 90 percent of cell phone users were still accessing the lessons after 15 days. compared to only 50 percent of computer users. communicative skills and community building.5 billion mobile phones in the world (Prensky. strong search capabilities. The key benefits of using mobile devices for learning include the following: > > Portability Any time. tablets. and wearable computers in teaching and learning. (2004). wearable computing.6 billion units in operation by that year. location-dependence. brokerage. any place connectivity
Researchers point out other benefits. personal digital assistants (PDA). Masayasu Morita evaluated the use of English language lessons formatted differently for computers and cell phones. particularly those in dispersed communities Active learning experiences
>
Description
Mobile learning (“m-learning”) refers to the use of mobile and handheld IT devices. delivery and tracking of learning and information content.” Two years ago. In addition to sales of one billion mobile phones in 2009. multimedia. collaborative learning.Mobile Devices
Related terms
Ambient computing. it is learning and knowledge sharing that takes place when a learner is using a mobile device. using ambient intelligence. such as increased computer literacy. there are potential disadvantages in mobile computing (McLean. Essentially. Clark Quinn (2000) sees m-learning as “…the intersection of mobile computing and eLearning: accessible resources wherever you are. instant messaging (text. including the following: > Small screens limit the amount and type of information that can be displayed Limited memory and storage capacities for mobile devices Batteries have to be charged regularly Mobile devices are more fragile than other types of computers and can more be more easily stolen or lost Intermittent connectivity Interoperability among devices is difficult Links to learning management systems and other enterprise IT systems are primitive or non-existent Existing applications need to be adapted for mobile devices at considerable expense Network access costs can be significant Security is a major issue There is little stability in the market because of rapid development
> > >
> > >
>
> > >
On a positive note. wireless
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Flexible and timely access to e-learning resources Immediacy of communication Empowerment and engagement of learners. mLearning. 2003). laptops. location based technologies. podcasting. it is predicted that there will be 2. personalization. This is more than three times the number of personal computers (PCs). rich interaction. MP3 players.

et al.ac. research. not an artificial or man-made language such as a programming language.edu Natural language processing is one of the featured topics on the American Association for Artificial Intelligence Web site. and to teach foreign languages or improve nonnative speakers’ accents.Natural Language Processing
Related terms
Conversational learning. (2005a. Kim (2000). it is not surprising that it has great potential in emerging e-learning technologies.aaai.org/ The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has a Voice Browser Working Group that has published a number of specifications for
Given that spoken language is an important component of many learning situations. rather than just returning Web pages.e.upenn. (2004). Lee et al. http://dmoz. and standards. i.cs. natural language understanding. “a 'natural language' (NL) is any of the languages naturally used by humans.html Lexxe is a search engine powered by “advanced natural language technology” to find the answers to questions. a graduate student at the University of York in the UK.it/index. Italy is a European research group for natural language processing.lexxe.translating one natural language into another. speech recognition. (2004).. http://www. http://eduforge. natural language generation.ldc. machine translation. tools. ‘Natural language processing’ (NLP) is a convenient description for all attempts to use computers to process natural language. TCC is a member of the European Network of Excellence in Natural Language and Speech (ELSNET).” Examples of natural language processing include the following: > > > > > Speech synthesis Speech recognition Natural language understanding Natural language generation Machine translation .york. a component of intelligent tutoring systems. http://www.html The Open Directory Project lists about 150 Web resources on natural language processing. http://tcc.” See also Jordan et al..elsnet. voice recognition
Selected Examples
The Cognitive and Communication Technologies (TCC) in Trento.com/
Description
According to Coxhead (2001). speech synthesis.php?form_cat=274 ELSNET is a European Network of Excellence specializing in natural language processing. found that the generator which intuitively produces the best language does engender the most learning.org/softwaremap/trove_list . and Zhou (2000) for more on natural language approaches to intelligent tutoring. http://www. It can be used as an interface for many different devices. html Eduforge lists 26 natural language processing projects in education in English and another 13 in other languages. Di Eugenio. http://www.itc.uk/~silvia/litReview.org/aitopics/html/natlang.
Online Resources
A very useful literature review of the use of natural language processing technologies in education is provided by Silvia Quarteroni.
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.org/Computers/Artificial_Intelli gence/Natural_Language/ The Linguistic Data Consortium supports language-related education. 2005b) developed two natural language generators in e-learning applications and “. and technology development by creating and sharing linguistic resources: data. an alternative communication strategy to improve accessibility. http://wwwusers.

Description
Peer-to-peer computing (P2P) involves sharing resources over a network with other users, thus bypassing a central server. As personal computers become more powerful, each one of them can act as a server in terms of processing power, memory, and storage. All that is needed is peer-to-peer software to enable this way of working. Peer-to-peer (P2P) software has mostly been associated with downloading music, movies, and games. Now there is a movement to use it for sharing work and collaborating in educational environments. There are three distinct P2P computing models (Farago-Walker, 2003): > Multiple Peer Relationships - PCs are connected/networked to each other through servers, and files can be shared and collected from anyone else on that same network. Distributed Peer Relationships – A group of computers connected together to combine their computing and processing abilities to search the Internet or solve very complex problems requiring massive process crunching. Collaborative Peer Relationships - A small group of people agree to collaborate through a common interface such as on-line gaming, chat rooms, instant messaging, or e-learning environments.

paradigm. In the future, the key to the learning process will be the interactions among students themselves, and the formation of virtual learning communities will be the neces-sary qualification for effective e-learning. The potential development of learning communities will also be studied by using a metaphoric term “peerto-peer learning.” The younger generation already does a lot of sharing and exchanging of resources. This ethic is sure to spread to learning in the near future.

Selected Examples
SETI@home links and uses donated computer processing capacity to analyze data collected from a radio telescope located in Puerto Rico. It is an example of grid computing and the power of peer-topeer technologies. http://www.seti.org/science/setiathome.ht ml Campus Movie Fest is the world’s largest student film festival, where students meet to share and exchange their productions. http://www.campusmoviefest.com/ The Worldwide Lexicon Project is an open source initiative to create a multilingual dictionary service for the Internet and to create a simple, standardized protocol for talking to dictionary, encyclopedia, and translation servers throughout the Web. http://picto.weblogger.com/ eduCommons - The eduCommons is an open system for creating, sharing, and reusing educational content and discourse to support people's learning. http://cosl.usu.edu/projects/educommons Edutella is a peer-to-peer service for the exchange of educational metadata. Edutella lives on top of the Semantic Web framework as a distributed query and search service. http://edutella.jxta.org The Chord Project aims to build scalable, robust distributed systems using peer-topeer networks. http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/chord/ Groove Networks has developed software tools that provide multiple users real-time access to information simultaneously. Groove is now owned by Microsoft

>

>

Peer-to-peer e-learning is not yet prevalent, as most formal learning is based on individual learning and not on collaborating or sharing work. Jokela (2003), whose research is based on activity theory, predicts that this will change: The current problems of the higher education, combined with the potential development of e-learning may eventually lead to the introduction of a new learn-ing

Corporation. http://www.groove.net Sun Microsystems Project JXTA standard is a set of peer-to-peer protocols that allows any connected device (cell phone to PDA, PC to server) to communicate and collaborate. http://wwws.sun.com/software/jxta/ Stanford University Library Systems LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Content Safe) project aims to create a "low-cost, persistent digital cache" of e-journal content. http://lockss.stanford.edu/ The Metadata3 project (also known as md3) is a peer-to-peer application that provides access to quality metadata and the ability to translate between different metadata schemes. http://www.md3.org Do you have unused storage capacity on your computer? OceanStore is a global persistent data store designed to scale to billions of users. Any computer can join the infrastructure, contributing storage or providing local user access in exchange for money. http://oceanstore.cs.berkeley.edu/info/ove rview.html Piazza peer data management system (PDMS) project uses mapping to provide "semantic mediation" between an environment of thousands of peers, each with its own data schema. http://data.cs.washington.edu/piazza.html Publius is a Web publishing system that is highly resistant to censorship and provides publishers with a high degree of anonymity. http://publius.cdt.org/ Tapestry is a location and routing infrastructure that provides locationindependent message routing using only point-to-point links and without centralized resources. http://p2p.cs.ucsb.edu/chimera/ Advanced Reality has a set of P2P collaboration products that allow users to work directly together on various applications. http://www.advancedreality.com/products/i ndex.html MoveDigital, the online P2P distribution service for independent artists, musicians, and videomakers, allows anyone, for a small

fee, to distribute content on the Web using P2P techniques. http://www.movedigital.com/ Overnet is an open source, cross platform application (Win, Mac, and Linux) that allows people to share files with millions of others across the globe. http://www.overnet.com DigitAlexandria is a peer-to-peer scientific digital library with interesting free resources. http://www.bdaweb.net/index.php FreeScience software from DigitAlexandria allows any researcher to share his or her scientific papers (as well as notes, data, and drawings) into a P2P network so that his works will be instantly available to hundred of thousands researchers worldwide. http://www.bdaweb.net/freescience_learn more_it.php# LimeWire claims to be “the fastest P2P file sharing program on the planet.” It also says that there is “no spyware, no adware, no Trojan horse” bundled with this program. http://www.limewire.com/english/content/ home.shtml LionShare is an open source P2P collaboration among several universities, headquartered at Penn State University. http://lionshare.its.psu.edu/main/project_i nformation The Canadian LLEARN project for learning French (at the secondary school level) has built-in P2P functionality. It is being use as part of the learning infrastructure to provide students a means to find and exchange resources. http://www.llearn.net/ The Malmo Hospital and Malmo University in Sweden are enabling employees at the Malmo hospital to access videos on how to use various pieces of equipment in the hospital's intensive care unit (ICU) using handheld computers and peer-to-peer learning. http://www.stockholmchallenge.se/projectd ata.asp?id=5&projectid=4572

Online Resources
The e-Learning Centre in the UK maintains an extensive list on the use of P2P software in education. http://www.e-

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learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/Resources/p2 p.htm Internet 2’s Peer to Peer Working Group keeps an up to date list of educational projects using P2P technologies. http://p2p.internet2.edu/apps_list.html Clive Shepherd from Fastrak Consulting in the UK has an introductory white paper on peer-to-peer e-learning, including a case study entitled “Learning Swap Shop.” http://www.fastrakconsulting.co.uk/tactix/features/swapshop. htm

amongst institutions. An LMS cannot be ubiquitous. Secondly. a live connection to the Internet is not possible (in various laboratories.uk/ilogbook/d efault. This means that the learning environment also needs to be present and appropriate to the situation. and review his or her learning activity. 2005)
Description
The concept of a personal learning environment (PLE) is similar to a learning management system but designed for an individual learner. (Cortlett et al. such as search engines. A personal learning environment would be portable and would interact with institutional learning management systems as well as other sources of online content. Here are the disadvantages of learning management systems/virtual learning environments compared with the advantages offered by personal learning environments: > LMSs are not intrinsically learnercentered. learners need to be in real-world situations. and through a variety of technologies. there is little scope to choose a personal suite of tools or resources according to individual learning styles and work habits. as learners move between institutions. e-portfolios. Technology needs to be situated. it helps the user plan.bham. learning management systems. Courses are largely created and structured around the curriculum and administrative organization of the institution. Individualization in an LMS is weak. work places. To practice real-world situations. The demand for personal learning environments comes from the fact that learning management systems are not easily customized to suit the needs and preferences of individuals. often only for the purposes of the course. and.. Although the learner sees his own selection of courses and may be able to make some graphical modifications
>
> >
Personal learning environments are in the early stages of development. wikis. personalization >
(mostly in the interest of accessibility).cetadl. http://portal.
Selected Examples
Interactive Logbook: a Mobile Portfolio and Personal Development Planning Tool brings together all the tools and networked resources required by the learner. This concept is quite removed from formal teaching in an educational institution. It is a virtual space that brings together a multitude of software and data that can be available for individuals to use for learning. Learning happens everywhere and at all times. whiteboard). Running on the learner's PC. discussion forums. etc. and social bookmarking sites.ac. The idea is to have an application that tracks learning achievements controlled by a single user for his or her benefit. without an offline client to the LMS. A PLE contains the tools of the learner’s choice and resources as chosen and managed by the learner. manage. LMSs offer collaboration tools (discussion. This requires support over time. In many cases. track. A personal learning environment can be self-contained on a user’s computer or can connect to the wider Internet. blogs. social environments.Personal Learning Environments
Related terms
ePortfolios.aspx
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. they may need to learn new interfaces for different learning management systems. A PLE contains collaboration tools that can connect with anyone. which leaves little freedom for the learner to be involved in the design. libraries. for the learner. A PLE is structured by the learner.). A PLE must support lifelong learning. and it remains to be seen if they will become commonplace or will replace learning management systems. there can be no electronic interaction. chat. but these are only available to members of the course.

and/or presentation of materials.elenaproject.g.uk/ilex/final. a Web site that “remembers” if the user prefers a yellow or blue background as the background on a PC’s “desktop.hcrc. yet we would heistate to call this real personalis-ation – customisation is just remembering some user settings for a predictable behaviour. In this case it is not just remember-ing a setting for something that the user knows about (which font size. 2005) Once the user data has been collected.” All of these systems remember a user’s preferences and adjust their behaviour accordingly.” All personalization schemes in software utilize a user profile or model. based on inferences from user behavior in navigating or interacting with the personalized application (e. Adaptive presentation is the changing format in which the content is presented. However.
Selected Examples
The ELANA Project features “Personal Learning Assistant Services. and the results of testing to allow appropriate materials to be served and to track each learner’s progress. Keenoy et al. The goal of personalization software is to change that by having software adapt to the user's needs. using dynamic profiling techniques such as cookies or log files).ac. the personalization can be applied to content. Examples of customisation are things like setting the desired font size in a Web browser.
Description:
Individualization has been the “holy grail” of progressive teaching. through a questionnaire). At the simplest level this takes the form of customisation – users can adjust various system settings stored in a profile and the system will reflect the changes. Often.time-ordered sequences based on a learner’s path through educational materials.). artificial intelligence. Adaptive navigation is providing a personalized set of links to the user. but actually adapting new behaviour to what the user is most likely to want. there are many techniques to turn it into a personalized experience. personalized applications use both explicit and implicit approaches. have proven to be too complex in most traditional classrooms and training programs.. or it can be an implicit model.g. we mean a process whereby mach-ines (computer systems.. describe the state of personalization in software today: When we talk about personalisation.) automatically adapt their behaviour to cater for the needs or preferences of different individuals. it has been difficult to achieve because it requires different materials to be prepared for each learner. Once a personalization algorithm has done its work. navigation. 2005). (Filippini-Fantoni.” Access through a Web browser or the user’s history of interaction with the site allows different device preferences (e. rule-based filtering. Furthermore. This can be an explicit model based on information directly supplied by the user (e.asp?p=1-1 The ILEX Project uses natural language generation techniques to generate descriptions of museum artifacts that consider both the level of user knowledge and the history of previous encounters with the artifact.org/en/index. intelligent tutoring personal learning environments
colour. http://www.Personalization Software
Related terms
Adaptive software. and Web usage mining (Filippini-Fantoni. Adaptive content is when different information is retrieved based on personalization techniques. picture.g. Real personalisation begins to happen when the system uses the information it has about the user to anticipate their needs and provide them with some-thing that they want or need. keeping track of what has been offered to each learner as an educational experience. These techniques include content-based filtering. PDAs). The trails can be related to a learner’s interests or
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.. etc.ed. learning environments. etc.html The Kaleidoscope TRAILS Project is based on the fact that learners engaging with learning objects leave “trails” . collaborative filtering. http://www.

and other roles outside an organization (Collins. Collins (2001) identifies nine types of corporate portals: > > > > > > > > > Information Portals Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) Portals Electronic Commerce Portals Employee/Human Resources Portals Corporate Interest Portals Internet Hosting Portals Collaborative Portals Expertise Portals Knowledge Portals
A complete e-learning portal represents the total integration of multimedia.Push information to where it is needed Communications Tools Applications Integration Consistent Brand Experience . the portal offered information on more than 20. Knowledge Management. http://www. 2004)
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> > >
Corporate portals can have many functions within an organization. In the business world.elearningeuropa. 2001). instructorled.000 projects on e-learning and thousands of articles. resource sites
> > > > >
Communities of Practice Personalization . Learner profiles can be used to personalize learning portals and to help form “communities of practice” among the portal users. and real-time training and documents in a supportive. content management. There is also a directory of publications and a directory of authors and contributions. corporate portals are usually structured around roles that are found inside an organization. vendors.Both internal and external to the organization
Description
Portals are Web sites that aggregate and integrate content and links from many different sources.Portals
Related terms
Collaboration. including the following: > > > > > > > > > Value Chain Integration Client Relationship Management (CRM) Knowledge Bases. collaborative environment. while enterprise portals are expansions of corporate portals to include customers. and Knowledge Flow Document/Content Management Information Integrator – Deep integration Information Filter Search Collaboration Polls and Surveys
Selected Examples
Elearning Europa is a portal on all aspects of e-learning in Europe. learning management systems. The interaction of the learner with a portal's information can be personalized based on previous and current user choices. Some uses of e-learning portals include: > > > Acting as the initial interface to live presentations Providing access to online classes or seminars Using collaborative options to allow for whiteboards along with demonstrations through application sharing Using Web instructor-led learning solutions that can automate the attendance process Allowing for the administration of exams and other forms of assessment Providing access to searchable educational content Effectively delivering learning to a geographically dispersed workforce (Ateshian. which form a dynamic user profile.info/ Microsoft SharePoint is portal software that allows “team members” (who could include
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. As of early 2006.

39155030.kolabora. http://www.> >
http://www. virtual classrooms.uk/eclipse/vendors/p resentations.htm eWeek Magazine has lists of resources for videoconferencing.uk TimelyWeb lists and reviews over 25. Captivate. a columnist at InfoWorld.ca/softeval/ A comprehensive “Web conferencing guide” is maintained by David Woolley. and kidneys.html#a1156
Live from… is a site for simulated medical procedures on the heart. independent listing of Webinars.infoworld. Web conferencing.co. > > http://www.com/publications/lel/lel.adelaide. videoconferencing. Webcasts.htm http://www.athabascau.elearningcentre.elearningcentre.elearningcentre. and seminars relating to the field of human resources.org/livefrom/in-theor/livefrom_videos.” > http://www.com/news_radars /web_presentations.hp. social software for online collaboration. online meetings. although it does not have to be.silicon.ccimeet. videoconferencing.shtml
>
The e-Learning Centre in the UK has a specific list of resources on how to use various Acrobat/Macromedia Products such as Acrobat.com/news_radars /web_conferencing. It covers “real-time” Web conferencing.00. virtual teams.uk/eclipse/Resource s/live.thinkofit.humanresourceWebinars.acue.html
The Kolabora Web site lists reviews of various resources on Web conferencing.asp_Q_sitename_E_eweek_w ebconferencing The e-Learning Centre in the UK has a list of resources and links on live e-learning. Coursebuilder.htm http://www. http://cde.com/udell/200 5/02/25.htm Teaching is often equated with live presentations. http://www. groupware.380 0005416. and Flash. and e-learning.edu.html The e-Learning Centre in the UK maintains a comprehensive list of online presentation tools and resources on “live e-learning. and using PowerPoint and Breeze.ht m Human Resource Webinars is a free. forums and message boards.000 software programs for business and presentation tools. online communities.co. brain.co.uk/eclipse/Resources/te ach. http://buyersguide.com/webconf/index. instant messaging. See live video from the operating room at: http://www. http://www.
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. http://ajax.com/ Communiqué Conferencing has a useful white paper on how to choose a Web conferencing system.lsc. > > http://weblog.eweek. The e-Learning Centre maintains a list of online teaching resources.elearningcentre.html#a1185 http://weblog. Authorware. presentation and streaming presentation tools.pdf Brandon Hall Research (publishers of this report) has a report entitled “Live E-Learning 2004”. intranets.co. Breeze. http://www.uk/eclipse/Resources/usi ngadobe.kolabora.infoworld. virtual meetings.htm http://www. Web seminars. and whiteboarding.htm
Online Resources
Athabasca University in Canada has a software evaluation site that lists and describes various online meeting and discussion packages.com/hpinfo/newsroom/ press/2005/051212xa.htm
An example of an online lecture from the University of Adelaide in Australia using RoboPresenter.brandonhall.com/eweek/web conferencing.com/choosingawebcon ferencesolution. http://www.au/~calgary/ partone/# Presentations that are based on screen captures and narration are sometimes called screencasting. http://www.e-learningcentre. and Web presentations. http://www. Dreamweaver.co. Two interesting examples are both narrated by Jon Udell.com/cxoextra/0.com/udell/200 5/01/22.

By immersing children in “microworlds” the children themselves controlled.com/r_home. Check out the ROVs made by Woods Hole Marine Systems. Their main client is the Mystic Aquarium’s Institute for Exploration.au/ Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Academy claims to be “building engineers.com/
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.cmu. for underwater exploration.com/ Active Robots in the UK sells a wide variety of kits for building educational robots.org/aboutbotball/overview. engineering. The "RB5X: Mission to Mars" materials are available at: http://www.
Selected Examples
Remotely Operated Vehicles (or ROVS) are one type of robot. technology.gov/ The Antarctica Online project involves students in South Australia using robots located at the Australian Antarctic Davis Station to conduct remote telecontrol experiments. and math.” Find out how you can become involved at: http://wwweducation. which is used to control both physical and virtual “turtles” with simple commands.edurobot.aad. Inc.evolution.lego. > http://www. http://www.rec. simulation
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http://www. http://mindstorms.html The KISS Institute for Practical Robotics (KIPR) is a private non-profit communitybased organization that has worked since 1993 with all ages to provide improved learning and skills development by applying
Description
The use of robots in education has a history going back to the 1960s. http://www. http://www.botball. Check out their online catalogue at: http://www.ri. Robots are becoming more prevalent in educational settings and can be used for the following: > > > > > > > > > Teaching Objects of study Tour guides Welcoming devices Providing information Assisting in difficult situations such as archaeological digs or in space Remote sensing Underwater study Accessibility for persons with a disability
Robotics is a great way to get students excited about science. engineering. and mathematics.ife. http://robotics. Seymour Papert and his colleagues at MIT developed the LOGO computer language for children.whmsi.nasa. Papert and his colleagues hoped the children would naturally learn mathematical relationships.org/ General Robotics Corporation has developed a robotics curriculum for schools.gov.edu/index.com/ Botball is a hands-on learning experience in robotics designed to engage students in learning the practical applications of science. http://www. technology.active-robots. It is also highly effective in developing team-work and self-confidence. one child at a time. Learn all about future space robots and participate in the activities on the site.com/education/ The European Robotics Research Network (EURON) Web site provides a platform for collecting and sharing information about robots in education. This initiative has developed into several educational products that use LOGO and robots for teaching.html Evolution Robotics offers its robot kits to schools at substantial discounts.org/
The LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System allows children to produce their own working robots and learn how to program them.Robotics
Related terms
Artificial intelligence.euron.php NASA has a robotics program aimed at teachers and students.

The Search: how Google and its rivals rewrote the rules of business and transformed our culture. 7-12.tveyes.elearning. http://www. Exchanging.com/ Netmasters in the UK provides a country by country listing of search engines used in various European countries.readwriteweb.pdf Ensor.htm Ezzy.eurekster. http://infomine.netmasters. Resource Discovery . Advanced Technologies for Contents Sharing. or topic . or swicki.com/ Stephen Downes.com/archives/se arch_20_vs_tr. http://www. Ebrahim (2006). CitySearch provides up to the minute data on events happening in various US cities.org/issues/issue10 _12/aharoni/index.gpoaccess. This search engine. No. F. http://www. Most search engines just look at “simple text” when analyzing the content of a Web site. TVEyes provides the technology and the content. Read/Write Web. Much of this information is hidden to ordinary search engines. 2006.downes. Find out why in this presentation: http://www.ViewAbstract&paper_id=11427 DigiCULT (2004).gov/ http://www.uk/european_se arch_engines/ One effective way to improve search results is to limit the scope of the search and to employ techniques to look at the semantic meaning of changing structured data from dynamic Web pages. and Shoham. Search 2.ucr. DigiCULT Thematic Report. and Searching in eLearning Systems. With a fast growing network of stations monitored worldwide. A. Frank. http://www. http://www..php Geser.ala.readwriteweb. http://swicki.searchenginecolossus. and Apprato. Users can also browse by subject category.Position Paper: Putting the Users First. July 20.php Ezzy.. O. For example. Traditional Search. Resource Discovery Technologies for the Heritage Sector. a senior researcher with the National Research Council of Canada. First Monday.com/ FirstGov and GPO Access allow Web site searches of the US Government. http://www. Pat (2005). > > http://firstgov. Read/Write Web.gov/
http://www.com/ The International Directory of Search Engines lists local search engines for 319 countries and territories.cfm?fuseactio n=Reader.. http://www.firstmonday.co. John (2005). Guntram (2004).amazon. S.0 vs. July-Sept. See what is happening in New York at: http://newyork.ac.ppt#263 This site lists search research initiatives including federated search projects being funded in Europe.edu/ TVEyes makes Radio & TV searchable by keyword.0 vs. is against the idea of federated searches. Traditional Search. 2006. December.
Infomine searches scholarly Internet resource collections. In Resource Discovery Technologies for the Heritage Sector. International Journal on e-Learning.editlib. http://www. (2004). Part 1. 10(12).org/ala/lita/litaresources/to olkitforexpert/toolkitexpert. can be published on the user's site. June. Finding information on the free World Wide Web: a specialty meta-search engine for the academic community.
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. DigiCULT Thematic Report. No. Y. 6. (2005). Search 2. Ebrahim (2006).com/gp/product/1591 840880/sr=81/qid=1146838091/ref=pd_bbs_1/1023258918-6488923?%5Fencoding=UTF8 De Pietro. New York: Portfolio. http://www. Tool Kit for the Expert Web Searcher. July 25.com/archives/se arch_20_vs_tr_1.html Battelle.just as a search engine is used for text.citysearch.org/index. June 2004.uses the wisdom of crowds to improve search results.uk/features/searc hprojects
Bibliography
Aharoni.ca/files/KnowledgeNet works.digicult. 6. http://www. Part 2. 2004.info/downloads/digicult _thematic_issue_6_lores. phrase. Online resource provided by the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA).

but it is important to realize that the semantic Web is an idea in development.org/akt/ The Semantic Computing Research Group (SeCo) at the Helsinki University of Technology researches machine-processable semantics.
Selected Examples
In Europe.com/tech/sem anticstk The Advanced Knowledge Technologies Web site at the University of Southampton in the UK uses ontologies for its ability to link various research resources. Instead of simply finding items on the Web by locating their Universal Resource Locators (URLs). (2005) note that “historically.alphaworks. producing metadata always implies a particular worldview. Berners-Lee remains involved with this initiative and works with the W3C from its headquarters at MIT. founder of the World Wide Web. metadata. each piece of information is tagged with additional information that can be read by computers. http://www. and Peter Van Dijck (2003) summarizes the arguments and the cast of characters in the debate. The Semantic Web is now an initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).ibm. 2003).elenaproject. the ELENA project has employed a novel infrastructure and software solution using various semantic Web technologies. http://www. and the OWL Web Ontology Language (OWL). Paul Ford (2003) refutes Shirky’s arguments. the Internet and the World Wide Web gave birth to the concepts of e-learning and collaborative knowledge sharing across the globe. Abbas et al. the international organization that sets standards for the technologies underlying the World Wide Web (WWW). The two main technologies involved in the Semantic Web are the Resource Description Framework (RDF). Web feeds
semantic Web is that the meaning of raw information is always ambiguous and needs interpretation (Shirky. This helps the computer program understand the meaning of the content it locates at each location. search. taxonomies. It has both its advocates and its critics. The major arguments for an educational semantic Web include the following: > > > Better information storage and retrieval The use of agents Improved communications and collaboration
Description
The Semantic Web is a concept from Tim Berners-Lee. http://www. but due to largely unplanned and unanticipated growth. semantic grid. Lack of machine readable content coupled with information overload has put strains into the traditional knowledge delivery model of WWW. Like it or not. are now falling short of earlier promises. The situation is especially serious in the e-learning domain where the success and usefulness directly correlates with the effectiveness of knowledge delivery in a dynamic setting.org/en/index. the idea of the semantic Web is progressing. near Boston. microformats.aktors.Semantic Web
Related terms
Learning objects. They also create prototype applications that demonstrate the new possibilities of semantic technologies.asp?p=1-1 IBM has developed an Integrated Ontology Development Toolkit (IODT) for creating ontologies to use with the semantic Web. such
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. In an article that identifies many of the problems involved with implementing elearning on the Web. ontologies.” There are many views on the potential of the semantic Web for resolving some of these problems. One of the major criticisms of the
Major points raised by skeptics of an educational semantic Web include: > > The idea of a semantic Web is complicated and difficult to implement A single unifying ontology under which all information can be classified is likely impossible Tagging content depends on voluntary labor
>
In summary. but it will not be in general use for some time.

Educational simulations involve learning through experience or what Linser and Ip (2002) call dynamic goal-based learning. 2005). and exercise the necessary skills required to be successful in order to reach these goals and in the process acquire the knowledge and understanding needed. in a dynamic and reflexive environment.it/mauro/publications/Cherubini_ Winters_Strohecker_chi03_mc. (2003) present a prototype learning environment for children to create their own knowledge about multivariate systems.htm Another spherical display system is the Science on a Sphere project from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).edu/?pagename=Pr ojects The L2C (Learning to Collaborate) project provides the opportunity to address and significantly advance the state-of-the-art (both theory and practice) in educational simulations.pdf The CAVE is an immersive virtual reality facility designed for exploring and interacting with spatially engaging environments. It was decommissioned in 2005. one which continuously emerges from the impact of their own actions.insead.uiuc. i. http://www. See a variety of such projects at: http://www.gov/ Winters et al. It is an innovative solution to showing global visualizations. microworlds. especially ones set by themselves.noaa. http://www.insead. http://www. scenarios
tabletop–sized physical dome in which children experimented with environmental parameters affecting plant growth. learn. http://www.edu/?pagename=EI S%20Simulation The VERDI Project (Virtual Environment for Real time Distributed applications over the Internet) is a 3-D multi-user change management business simulation that uses a satellite network. participants will be motivated to evaluate.edu/?pagename=L2 C CHANGEMASTERS provides e-learning simulations that put users in role-playing situations where they can develop their skills in interacting with others.e. entitled Emerging E-Learning: New Approaches to Delivering Engaging Online Learning Content (Brandon Hall Research.com/omni.” My first report in this series. http://sos. role-playing.insead.insead. “Simulation has emerged as a fast-growing segment of the e-learning market.icherubini.calt.calt.edu/?pagename=VE RDI The EdComNet Project is an educational communal network that acts as a portal for practicing better citizenship and decisionmaking skills. http://www. a strategy that leverages the experience and motivation of participants trying to reach a goal.calt.calt. “The idea is that in attempting to achieve game goals.ncsa.Simulation Tools
Related terms
Experiential learning. http://cave.arcscience. http://www.calt.edu/?pagename=Ch angeMasters The EIS Simulation Project is a computerbased multimedia business simulation involving implement ing organizational change. According to High (2004). but information about it remains on the Web.”
Selected Examples
Need a spherical display to show a simulation? Consider using OmniGlobe from ARC Science Simulations.
Description
The use of educational simulations is currently the hottest trend in e-learning. reviewed simulations as an online content format.insead.edu/ Advanced Simulations of Organizational Dynamics are experiential learning systems exploiting technologies such as multimedia or virtual reality to accelerate the understanding and learning of organizational processes. This virtual world was linked to a
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. Now in this report I look at the tools available for developing simulations. games.

has built a virtual environment for simulations called LearnLand.htm StageCast – Creator – A simulation authoring tool specifically designed for use
by children.learning2005.Create live screen movies by capturing actions at up to 25 frames a second.nexlearn.ca/Libraryfiles/main/Fin d/Links/Simulation_Training.com/ MaxIT .Firefly Simulation Records a sequence of actions performed within an application.DazzlerMax – Build simulations with programming.com/ Reusable Objects . create courses specifically on using computer software. Integrates with many media types. which can then be used to build simulations. including simulations.com/portal/index.com/product_r pe.knowledgepresenter.com/ Knowledge Planet .htm Want to learn about space missions? What about trying the virtual space center control room modeled on the Houston Space Control Center? http://www.htm Qarbon – ViewletCam – Captures screens and screen actions. http://www.maxit. http://www.com/ Kookaburra Studios . http://www.com/products /firefly. http://www.elearningcentre.com/products/ TEDS – SimCorder – Record applications and then author simulations with this software. http://www.” http://www.the click of a mouse.knowledgeplanet.com/ NexLearn – SimWriter – Use this authoring tool to build social simulations that are scenario based.icherubini.ExpertAuthor – With the built-in software simulation tool. http://www.com Outstart – SoftSim – With this software.reusableobjects.htm XStream – RapidBuilder – An interactive Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) content and animation authoring system that can be used to build graphical simulations.xstreamsoftware.teds.com/learnland/ The Justice Institute of British Columbia has a Web site that lists simulation resources.virtualcontrolroom. develop one simulation for multiple delivery modes.co. http://www.edu/eet/articles/mededuca tion/index. http://coe. http://www.org/ Mauro Cherubini wrote a Masters thesis on microworlds for children to learn about biology.maxit.it/mauro/projects/biosphera/thes is/ Elliot Masie.stagecast.com/ MaxIT .htm The Encyclopedia of Educational Technology contains descriptions of educational technologies in medicine.KnowledgePresenter Simulator . http://www.bc. http://www.percepsys.qarbon. http://www. http://www.uk/eclipse/Resources/si mulation.jibc.com/3dTraining.Visual Course Builder – Build simulations using templates without learning any programming.
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.knowledge-director.outstart.jsp Percepsys – SIMSTUDIO – Use this authoring system to build 3-D scenarios with multiple paths.com/products/sim.knowledgequest. http://www.CONSTRUCT Roleplaying Engine . http://www.htm The Learning and Skills Research Centre in the UK has an extensive list of research projects on simulation and gaming.sdsu.com/
Online Resources
The e-Learning Centre in the UK maintains a list of articles on “simulations in e-learning. http://www. http://www. http://www. http://www. a well-known e-learning consultant and speaker.com/ Stottler Henke – SimBionic – Drag-and-drop authoring of complex simulations are possible with this authoring tool.Develop interactive role-playing scenarios using a graphical interface without any programming knowledge required.stottlerhenke.asp Knowledge Quest .

based on what is happening in the news media. blogging. http://www.shadows.com/support MemeOrandum – This site generates a news summary every five minutes. Webbased RSS/Atom aggregator with bookmarks and tagging.simpy. sort.com/archives/beta_up date/index.A tool that lets users clip and save pieces of Web pages.com/ Kaboodle . and/or books and find them again.A Web site that allows users to both easily store their favorite bookmarks online and find new Web sites based on what other people have suggested. http://www. Also retrieve it easily.html Feedmarker – Feedmarker is a free.Consumating .furl.rojo.com/ Jots . They can then share these bookmarks with others and browse related topics. With digg. but. http://consumating.com Clipmarks .edu/ppad2/ index.com/ Del. http://jots.com/
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.networkltd.feedmarker. http://www.com/ Furl .com/ Project Pad . http://www.com/ Network Menus – Manage Web bookmarks by placing them within a menu structure.search.us/ Digg . http://www.com/ MyWeb – Save bookmarked Web pages and share them with others. http://www. http://del. http://flickr.A new way to find and connect with people who share hobbies and interests.memeorandum. RSS.A collaborative bookmarking system that allows users to store.icio.kaboodle. music.digg. search.linkroll.A technology news Web site that combines social bookmarking.html Rojo – An RSS feed reader based on adding tags to information. and share photos with others.gnolia.clipmarks. and discover relevant links. http://www. http://www.eventful.us . http://blog. http://ma.yahoo. http://projectpad. http://myweb2. open source Internet application that provides a complete visualization of a user's LAN.Browse the Web and save any page with a single-click.com/ Flickr – Store. http://www. http://www. http://www.pageflakes.com/today/ Shadows – A link sharing Web site based on social tagging. http://www.com/ Netvouz – Create pages of favorite Web bookmarks and then decide to keep them private or make them public.net/ Jookster . updated in near real time. Tags can be shared or kept private.A social bookmarking Web site that allows users to keep their favorite Web sites.com/ Magnolia . the users decide. http://www. and a "personal Virtual Private Network" capability to securely connect Kaboodle-enabled LANs together
across the Internet.Linkroll is a free link blogging service that allows users to store links to blogs and share them with others. similar to Digg.icio.html PageFlakes – Allows users to put all Web bookmarks from different sources on one page. and non-hierarchical editorial control. users submit stories for review. http://www.A project to build a Web-based system for media annotation and collaboration for teaching and learning and scholarly applications.netvouz.com/ Eventful – Lists events that are happening in a community and tries to match users up with others who are going to events.eu/products/networ k_menus. http://www.A free.org/news. share. rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage.northwestern.com/ Simpy – Search tags. or enter new items and tag them.A social search engine that also allows users who are searching for the same things to contact each other.html Linkroll .jookster.netscape.com/ Netscape – This venerable brand has become a social bookmarking site.

which is then open to other readers.html
Social Networking Analysis Software
UCINET is the most popular and fullfeatured system for social network analysis.com/signin/index. It is a comprehensive system designed by academics for academics. http://www.stumbleupon.com/ My Diary – Keep a diary on the Web at this site. http://www. https://www. and rate local restaurants and businesses – then share with friends online.com/ucinet.com/ Facebook – An online directory consisting of networks. http://www.linkedin. It costs several thousand dollars. http://platial.netminer.xanga.com
Open Diary – Anyone can keep a diary on this site. http://www. https://www.An online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends.last. http://www.com/ Xanga – A site devoted to online diaries and journals.” http://www.htm InFlow is targeted at businesspeople who only want to see the most important and basic social network analyses. http://www.com/inflow3. and files and then make them available to others.LiveJournal can be used in many different ways: as a private journal. http://www. Features photographs of members and ways to connect and communicate.org/ MySpace – Set up a personal space on this Web site and then search for others with similar interests.com Platial – A site to create social maps.analytictech. http://www.html NetMiner is designed for exploratory visual analysis.jsp Face Party – Billed as “the biggest party on earth.fm/ LinkIn – Develop a social network with this software.livejournal. and within “communities of interest. http://www.com/ introNetworks – Software for connecting people with each other at events.diaryland.myspace.esnips. http://www.com/ Orkut . http://www.com/splash Sparta Networks – Set up a private social network to support an online community using this company's tools. NetMiner draws an interactive picture highlighting them.facebook.faceparty. upload photos. photos.CodeVille – A site that allows programmers and developers to share code and merge algorithms. Facebook has networks for colleges. http://www. in associations.orkut. If a user asks for the key players in an organization. http://www. and geographic regions. or as a social network. http://www.orgnet. http://360.com/ Friendster – Build a network of friends on this site. http://www. audio. as a blog. which includes telephone-based support of social network analyses run by the user. high schools. video. with a way to annotate the world as you move through it.my-diary.yahoo.freeopendiary.” this site seems to be aimed at youth over age 16.com For an example of the use of social networking analysis.org/ Diaryland – Registered users can each keep a diary on this Web site and share it with others with the same interests.intronetworks.spartasocialnetworks.fm – A place to listen to music online and to meet others with similar tastes. with a very steep learning curve that can easily discourage novices.html Last. http://www.com/ Yahoo 360 – Create an online blog or journal.com/ ESnips – Add Web snippets and links. Share it with others if desired. Users share their writings and meet each other. List who a person knows and find out who others know.com/introNetwor ks. see the PBS map
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.com/ Live Journal . which are groups of people who can see each others' profiles.codeville. http://www. workplaces.com/ Stumble Upon – Discover Web sites a user likes by looking at the recommendations of others online.friendster. documents.com/reg/sample.

“Connecting the Dots: How Al Qaeda's global network slowly came into focus for U.S. intelligence (1993-2001).” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ shows/knew/etc/connect.html To see the relationships among all the highjackers during 9/11, check out the map at org.net and the list of related articles using social network analysis. http://www.orgnet.com/hijackers.html Org.net licenses the InFlow set of software tools for social and organizational network analysis. This software produces great graphs of social networks. http://www.orgnet.com/index.html UCINET 6 is inexpensive social network analysis software that, coupled with NetDraw, can produce detailed graphs of social relationships. http://www.analytictech.com/index.htm

links to similar sites. http://www.analytictech.com/networks/ Social Networks is a multidisciplinary scholarly journal on social networking. http://www1.elsevier.com/homepage/sae/ son/menu.sht The e-Learning Centre in the UK maintains a list of social software. http://www.elearningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/Resources/so cial.htm The Social Software Wiki has many materials on social networking. http://www.usemod.com/cgibin/mb.pl?SocialSoftware The Social Software Alliance is a group dedicated to all aspects of social networking. http://www.socialtext.net/ssa/index.cgi For a comprehensive listing of social networking sites, see the list in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_ networking_websites Social software report from FutureLab. http://www.futurelab.org.uk/download/pdfs /research/opening_education/Social_Softw are_report.pdf

Online Resources
For a review of a variety of types of social software, see the JNthWeb Wiki. http://jnthweb.pbwiki.com/SocialSoftware The syllabus for a graduate course on social software at Teacher’s College, Columbia University. http://ideant.typepad.com/ideant/2005/0 8/syllabus_for_gr.html The International Network for Social Network Analysis has resources on social network analysis. http://www.insna.org/ A free introductory text and major bibliography on “social network methods” by Robert Hanneman and Mark Riddle. http://faculty.ucr.edu/~hanneman/nettext/ Another free textbook on social software entitled “You Don't Know Me, but... Social Capital & Social Software” by William Davies. http://www.theworkfoundation.com/researc h/isociety/social_capital_contents.jsp SocioSite: Networks, Groups, and Social Interaction contains many links to conceptual analyses of the Web. http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/sociosite/topics/in teraction.html Social Network Analysis Instructional Web Site has many downloadable items and

Presence information lets users change their location and have phone calls and emails follow them. "Always on" videoconferencing lets users find colleagues online and convene real-time meetings, as if they were in the same room. There are several subcategories in the field of telepresence, including the following: > > > Telemanipulation devices and telerobotics with live interaction Haptic telesensation Telementoring and Teleteaching

Description
The Internet is a form of technology that can separate humans from each other or can bring them together. A person generally responds better to another person if they have more sensory contact that reveals the humanity of the other person. That is the theory behind telepresence applications. This category of software is designed to reveal the human characteristics of, and the sense of contact with, another person while communicating via the Web. When it is fully successful, the experience is like another person at a remote location being fully present in the live real world location. In 2000, the Internet Society’s Network Working Group suggested that presence “is a means for finding, retrieving, and subscribing to changes in the presence information (e.g., "online" or "offline") of other users.” The most commonly used presence technology today is “instant messaging,” but other more elaborate technologies, such as remotely operated vehicles (ROV), are also available. In spite of a growing research literature on the phenomenon of “telepresence” in networked environments, most online learning environments are bereft of anything representing the bodily features of teachers or fellow learners. It is not surprising that a two-year study of 169 Internet users found that they were more isolated and depressed at the end of the study than when they started (cited by Dreyfus, 2001). Telepresence systems have three essential sub-systems: a home site with technology that interfaces with the local user, a communication link between the home site and a remote site, and remote site technology that interfaces with the communication link and the person at the remote site.

Selected Examples
The Halo Collaboration Studio is a system of carefully placed plasma televisions, cameras, and microphones that allows two groups of up to six people to hold a live meeting in two separate locations. Conceived by Dreamworks as a response to travel concerns after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Halo allows meeting participants to make eye contact, share files and documents, and shout over each other to try to be heard, just like during a real meeting. > > http://www.hp.com/halo/index.html http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/f eature_stories/2005/05halotale.html

KMi Stadium is the generic label for a suite of activities and software tools that have been evolving since mid-1995 at the UK Open University's Knowledge Media Institute. The common goal of these activities is to stage large-scale live events and on-demand-replays while giving remote participants anywhere on the Internet a sense of 'being there.' http://cnm.open.ac.uk/projects/stadium/ The goal of the Transparent Telepresence Research Group (TTRG) at the University of Strathclyde is to produce the world's first telepresence system where the technology is totally transparent to the user. This would enable the user to experience being fully present, in every sense, at a physically remote real world site. http://telepresence.dmem.strath.ac.uk/ind ex.htm PERCRO is an Italian group with a variety of telepresence projects. Their tag line is

“Simultaneous Presence.com
Instant Messaging Tools:
AOL AIM – The instant messaging software from America Online. as well as news. ad-free alternative to consumer instant messaging services. http://www.yahoo.aim.pdf Knudsen.se/papers/TelePresenc e/CJKPresenceProd.ietf.com/
Online Resources
Virtual-Presence. http://www. secure. Network Working Group (2000).acs. history. C. http://get. Presence Production in a Distributed Shared Virtual Environment for Exploring Mathematics. 6. 2004. Presence applications poised for takeoff. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Advanced Computer Systems (ACS 2001).txt Knudsen. and Pejas.com/index. J. http://www-142. Hubert (2001).php IBM Lotus Sametime – Enterprise instant messaging and conferencing software.sourceforge. In Soldek. the CAVE. Sept. http://www. The production of presence – distance techniques in education. with controls and video screens that show the remote environment. (Eds.advanced.nada.org/teleimmersio n.pd f Fontana.jabber. http://gaim. and descriptions of systems for virtual presence. > > http://www. Telepresence and Virtual Presence.. A. http://www. L." http://www.nsf/wdocs/homep age GAIM – Gaim is a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux.) (2000). Nils (2000). The driver sits in a box.ieor.berkeley.fakespace. The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet. and Handberg.ebuddy.org/rfc/rfc2779. The site contains an extensive bibliography on the topic.html Goldberg.org/teleimmersio n2.no/at/nmm/enlund.percro.org
Bibliography
Dreyfus. (2002).com/ eBuddy – A site listing all the major instant messaging tools. Network World.org is dedicated to all aspects of virtual presence. London: Routledge.networkworld.net/ Jabber – An open.org/ Teledrive is a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that produces the feeling of “being there” for the driver. http://www. A.kth.edu/~goldberg/art /tele/ Internet Society. http://www. Instant Messaging/Presence Protocol Requirements.com/software/swlotus/products/product3. plus the ability to hook up a Webcam and chat with a video feed between computers.advanced. J.org/ Windows Live Messenger (aka MSN Messenger) – All the main features of instant messaging software. http://www. http://messenger.ibm. C.com/messenger/overview
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. http://kmr. http://www.unizar. and Windows.) ACS 2000 Proceedings. http://www. MA: MIT Press. Keynote address at the ISEC conference. Video Mediated Communication: producing a sense of presence between individuals in a shared virtual reality. Naeve. and Naeve.
Fakespace has the world’s first fully immersive visualization system.html
Yahoo Messenger – Instant messaging software with voice chat. Online memo.hig.html http://www. 44-49. http://www2.amazon. On the Internet. and other software that enhances a sense of being at a remote location. BSD.es/teledrive/ Tele-Immersion technology is designed to enable users in different locations to collaborate as if they were in the same room. Cambridge. Ken (Ed. John (2004). http://laimuz.com/news/2004/ 090604specialfocus.live.com/gp/product/0415 228077/104-03124348042331?v=glance&n=283155 Enlund. MacOS X.virtual-presence. (2001).

there is a lot of movement in the field of online video. bandwidth becomes an issue. Video is used everywhere in television and is common on the Internet.
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. although new tagging technologies may soon solve this problem. is emerging as a strong competitor to broadcast and cable television. In spite of the limitations. television. Britain's largest telecom firm. educational broadcasting has generally failed to have a major impact on the quality of learning experiences in schools. Examples of the services IPTV can offer include the following: > > > > > > > > > > > Unlimited channels of digital TV and music Personal video recording (PVR) Pay-per-view Caller ID on screen Video-on-demand (VOD) VOD by subscription (SVOD) E-mail Internet. with a great potential to impact e-learning in the near future. Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). amateur and professional video cameras. However. is an essential part of learning in today’s world. Video is coming at us from all sides – from Webcams. recently launched its own entertainment division to send video content over phone lines. A new version of television. As the following examples show.Video and IPTV
Related terms
Internet television. 2002). Now in this report I look at the tools available for developing educational video and IPTV. and video publishing and peer-to-peer sharing of videos are the norm. the largest Internet telephone service. making videos can be an engaging and empowering form of education (Goldfarb. screencasting. reviewed video as an online content format. cell phones. according to Foroohar (2006). tlearning. IPTV introduces a level of flexibility compared to traditional broadcasting. Internet companies like Google and Yahoo are developing video search engines. even a video plug-in for Skype. entitled Emerging ELearning: New Approaches to Delivering Engaging Online Learning Content (Brandon Hall Research. It is usually necessary to keep the video window small and have just acceptable image quality to accommodate the huge files sizes needed by digital video (although quality is rapidly improving). PDAs. IPTV. sending television over the Web (IPTV) is already big in Japan and gaining steam in the rest of the world. BT. 2005). video blogging. My first report in this series. Once video goes on the Internet. games Tax payment Information services Shopping
>
Despite the high quality of many productions. vodcasting. video on the Internet is not readily searchable. Video blogging has become common. in all its formats. videocasting. Further. streaming video. telepresence. vlog
> >
Interactive Advertising E-learning
Atwere and Bates (2003) say that the technology needs sufficient flexibility to address the following pedagogical considerations: > > > > How to turn a passive viewer into an active learner How to make learning opportunities more accessible in the home How to bridge the gap between ‘edutainment’ and ‘engaged learning’ How to integrate learning support systems (human and electronic) to enable engaged learning within a TVbased learning environment The types of interactivity needed to enhance the learning experience through interactive digital TV (interaction through a return channel)
Description
Video.

Peter (2003). London: Learning and Skills Development Agency. by alphabet. Dec.as p?id=8954&c=6 Bates. Beyond Wireless Broadband.masternewmedia.com Knowledge@Wharton has an article entitled “Online Video: the market is hot.com/seeds/index. http://www. P.org/doing/media. http://www. http://eduscapes. Online article at: http://www.” http://www. Luigi (2005a).dvguru.com/
http://www.Veoh allows individuals to broadcast their own television shows on the Internet or watch video posted by others.org/mobile_te levision/mobile_television_trends/mobile_t elevision_coming_20051019.com/webconf/video.mil/index.masternewmedia.uk/tlearning/contents.” Subtopics include video and streaming media.org/news/20 05/12/01/beyond_wimax_wibro_coming.html The e-Learning Centre in the UK supplies a major listing of online resources for educational uses of streaming media.htm The US Navy’s Human Performance Center Web site has an extensive listing of resources on digital video.upenn. http://www. read “Ten video sharing services compared. 1. Wi-Max.hpc.htm A third useful article from the Robin Good Blog on the impact of changes in television and streaming video is entitled “Watch TV Stations From The World Around: Online TV Player.wharton. termed “mobile television.A study into TV-based interactive learning to the home: Final Report. Wi-Fi.com David Woolley collects and posts links on videoconferencing on his Web site.ht m The elearnspace blog by George Siemens has a page devoted to “Media. and by tags.elearnspace.edu/articl e.”
Bibliography
Atwere.ht m EDUCAUSE has published a brochure entitled “7 things you should know about…Videoblogging.htm Canali De Rossi.masternewmedia.com The Robin Good blog (by Luigi Canali De Rossi) has a recent set of resources and interviews on audio and video file distribution with BitTorrent.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI 7005. and Bates. http://www. 2005.500 vlogs organized by popularity.org.h tm Mefeedia is a no frills portal devoted to video blogger feeds. D.ht m Canali De Rossi.com/2006/04/07/tenvideo-sharing-services-compared/ or http://dvguru. http://www.mefeedia.uk/eclipse/Resources/str eaminglearning.” http://www. http://www. Industry Perspectives: emerging video apps need programmability and flexibility.cfm? RID=TTE_OT_1000021 DV Guru offers advice on all aspects of digital video.spider.org/news/20 05/03/26/watch_tv_stations_from_the. but business models are fuzzy. (2003).navy.thinkofit.elearningcentre.” http://www. through the Prodigem peer-to-peer content site.htm The Robin Good blog (by Luigi Canali De Rossi) also has an article on using video taken with cell phones.pdf Bardia. Robin Good Blog. The site already contains nearly 6.pjb. Luigi (2005b). video.cfm?articleid=1519
Online Resources
“Multimedia Seeds” is a Web site devoted to audio. https://www. Beyond WiMax: Wi-Bro Coming.co.co. Interactive TV: a learning platform with potential. which users can submit. t-learning Study . http://www. http://www.com/article. and visual resources.educause.streamingmedia.uk/files/pdf/1443.iptv-industry. Pradeep (2004). For example.masternewmedia. Wi-Bro:
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.veoh. http://www.lsda. www.org/video/vid eo_publishing/video_distribution_via_p2p_ online_service_Prodigem_20050706.pdf The IPTV Industry blog has vast resources on this topic.” http://knowledge.

desktop virtual reality.equator.arts. and look do not count much in virtual spaces.ac. Shape has developed the augurscope. Creed. Exploration and discovery are enabled. http://www. Near Eastern. inventors.Virtual Reality
Related terms
Augmented reality. Fantasy and imagination can be unleashed. Video from an onboard camera is embedded into this virtual environment. http://www. virtual environments
only on end-users' machines.kahootz.net/wiki2/index. By using aspects of game play.com Savannah is a strategy-based adventure game where a virtual space is mapped directly onto a real space.html Kahootz is a powerful set of 3-D multimedia tools that allows students and teachers to be creators. designers. simulation. The augurscope consists of a tripod-mounted display that can be wheeled to different locations and then rotated and tilted to view a virtual environment that is aligned with the physical background. Virtual 3-D spaces allow full recording of any activity. skin color. The ability to inhabit any type of body and to customize one's own look gives many people the opportunity to express themselves as they truly feel and not as society forces them to.html
Description
Virtual reality allows worlds to be created that simply do not exist except as computer creations.ca/index.edu/graphics/proj ects/arc/arc.uk/showcase/sav annah/savannah. http://www.
> > > >
> >
>
Selected Examples
Solipsis is an open source peer-to-peer system for a massively shared virtual world. Risks are reduced for dangerous and unorthodox explorations of new spaces. distributed virtual environments. and re-experiencing or reusing past events. exchange enabling. http://solipsis.futurelab. Videoconferencing is not required. People with major physical handicaps appear as capable and beautiful as anyone else.org/highlights/augur.ubc.columbia. and Religious Studies department. To do this. Depending on the level of realism achieved.html Equator is a six-year interdisciplinary research collaboration to explore the integration of physical and digital realities. a portable mixed reality interface for outdoor use. http://ancient. There are no central servers at all: it relies
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. augmented virtuality. http://www. http://www1.shapedc. and storytellers. interaction. A user's learning experience can be designed to fit specific task needs with a flexibility and immediacy impossible in real life.p hp/Main_Page The Ancient Spaces Web site from the University of British Columbia allows users to reconstruct and play with historical properties.uk/ In collaboration with the Equator project (part of the EU's Disappearing Computer initiative).org. It aimed to bring experiential and game-based learning to the highly traditional curricula of the Classical.netofpeers. Children ‘play’ at being lions in a savannah. mixed reality.htm A collaborative project at Columbia University between the Graphics and User Interfaces Lab in the Computer Science Department and the Building Technologies Group in the Graduate School of Architecture applies augmented reality in the construction industry. virtual reality can be a powerful e-learning tool or a colossal waste of time. Savannah challenges children to explore and survive in the augmented space. they must successfully adopt strategies used by lions. Canali De Rossi (2004) lists 10 advantages of collaborating or learning inside a 3-D virtual immersive workspace: > > > The space is persistent.cs. and the aim of the virtual experience.

Explore a series of visualization experiments at: http://www.” http://richie.nasa.medibolt. http://www. http://www.org/timeformations/ intro. http://www. Java applet tool that allows users to select and view 2-D slices of bodies. Texas uses VRCO Full Circle.asp NASA maintains a “Scientific Visualization Studio” at the Goddard Space Flight Center.html For a practical application of visualization.medtropolis.edu/ Paul Nixon.” http://www.bbc. http://www.marumushi.ac. VR.com Web site in Tokyo. It has images of space and the earth from space.com/ Program 3-D graphics using the Alice v2.com FeedTank is a collective of digital artists using new technologies to create playful interactive spectacles.nlm. and display (without glasses!).com/VBody.The European Space Agency’s EnviView gateway has been introduced to facilitate the visualization of satellite information.lecielestbleu.mit.” which use colors and geometric forms to convey presence and activity. a young graphic designer.uk/2/hi/science/nature /3608385. Free demo at: http://www. http://www.nixlog.gov/index.ul. http://www.media.vrco. http://www. delivery. which allow models and information from various sources to be virtually exhibited. These include the NPAC/OLDA Visible Human Viewer. http://www.ubc.html The University of Birmingham has a Visual and Spatial Technology Centre with many examples of the use of visualization.utexas.alice. Be sure to explore the “zoo.ppt Visualize the conversations in a chat room with “chat circles.edu/index. http://www.com “Type is an organism” with intelligence and a life on the Web.ddd.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/ autostitch. http://news. and visualization applications.html Le Ceil Est Bleu Web site from France is an amazing collection of visualizations and animations.org/ AutoStitch is the world's first fully automatic 2-D image stitcher. Sample their efforts
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.co.esrin.skyscraper.0 authoring system.typorganism.gsfc.in English or Spanish. See his list of resources at: http://www.it/eoq/eoq68/Envi View_68.gov/research/visible/vi sible_human.stm The visualization of scientific data is also available from the Grok-It Science Web site.vista. http://esapub.tmm.uk/
A number of visualization techniques are outlined and demonstrated by Eoin Brazil of the University of Limerick in his presentation “Information Visualisation in Information Retrieval.cs. a visualization system comprising immersive 3-D display and dedicated software.nih.com A lot can be learned from a 3-D visualization of the human body .idc.bham. Sample the collection at: http://svs. http://chatcircles.ie/eoin/presentations/In formation%20Visualisation%20in%20Inform ation%20Retreival.html VRCO is a company specializing in producing advanced visualizations.pdf Dynamic Digital Depth provides expert stereo 3-D solutions for 3-D content creation. AutoStitch can be used for panoramic photography.”’ BBC News.com/ Numerous software visualization products for the Visible Human Project that aims to create complete 3-D representations of male and female human bodies. Especially take a look at Newsmap as a fresh way to view the headlines. has a Weblog devoted to the visualization of information.esa. April 7th. Museum Edition.html The Texas Memorial Museum in Austin. Capable of stitching full view panoramas without any user input whatsoever.com/infographics/ Visualize the history of Manhattan through the interactive time maps at the Manhattan Timeformations project. 2004. See: http://www. see ‘Scientists seek “map of science.com Extraordinary visualizations come from Marcos Weskamp and his marumushi. allowing users to access complex geophysical data in their preferred mode.

and.com Music Animation Machine turns music into a set of visualizations. http://www.com Accurender developed Raytrace and radiosity rendering software for architectural applications.microsoft. http://research.com
Online Resources
Visualcomplexity. Didger.advizorsolutions. http://www. http://www. http://www. cfm
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.esri.com
Visualization Tools:
ESRI is a leading geographical information systems and mapping software company. and rendering software.html Microsoft’s Visualization and Interaction for Business and Entertainment (VIBE) team's mission is to design elegant visualization and interaction techniques that span the full spectrum of devices and displays. Over 30 are “knowledge networks. http://www.” http://www.com Mapland has mapping software that is based on data in Microsoft Excel.timemap.com Golden Software produces and sells a variety of mapping software packages. Carrara.golden. for 3-D data visualization. for well log and borehole plotting.com Mapinfo gives business intelligence information about a specific geographical location.oziexplorer. especially for displaying and analyzing geospatial data.edu/ Intergraph is a world leader in delivering software and services for managing and visually representing complex information. including the following: Bryce.okino.formz.media. http://www.com/mam/mam.intergraph.visualcomplexity. They have worked with the U. for thematic and analytical mapping. and DAZ|Studio with pre-built 3-D characters. associations.S. for 2-D and 3-D graphing.com/vibe/
OziExplorer GPS Mapping Software runs on a PC or laptop.mapinfo. modeling. networks. Grapher. trends. and rendering. animation.com The Visual Thesaurus allows users to input a word and then watch while the software builds a set of dynamic visual links to related terms. http://tangible. Strater. It works with the leading brands of Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. http://www. MapViewer.visualanalytics. http://www. many of which are unique.com/ Tangible Media Group is part of the MIT Media Lab and focuses on the seamless couplings between the physical world and the virtual world.net/ TopoZone is the Web's center for professional and recreational map users.daz3d. http://www. for digitizing and coordinate conversion. and anomalies in data. Geological Survey (USGS) to create the Web's first interactive topographical map of the entire United States.5-D modeling and rendering software.pixologic.com Okino makes visual simulation data translation.com/ ADVIZOR’s Visual Discovery software enables people to make better decisions from their business data. including the following: Voxler.softill.com/vc/index. http://www.accurender.com Pixologic is 2. for 3-D landscaping and animation. http://www.goes far beyond static JPG map images. http://www.com VisualAnalytics’ product VisuaLinks is the premier analytical tool for "connecting the dots" by extracting and visually analyzing data to uncover patterns.musanim. http://www. Try a demo at: http://www. http://www. for 3-D modeling.mit.com/ form·Z is an award winning general purpose solid and surface modeler with an extensive set of 2-D/3-D form manipulating and sculpting capabilities.com links to several hundred visualizations of complex data sets. Clicking a related term extends the process.topozone.com DAZ3D offers several visualization packages.visualthesaurus. http://www. http://www.

envisioninc.com
Description
Conversation is usually a major part of most learning experiences.com/ VoIP Review has listings and consumer reviews for over 180 Internet calling plans. headphones or speakers. htm The VoIP Weblog covers all aspects of VoIP and Internet telephony.com/gcm/masterusa/enus/resource/filter.cogs. http://www.Industry:Education Envision offering online coaching using VoIP with its “Click2Coach” software.uk/eclipse/vendors/chat.com/ Jajah allows the user to make a free VoIP call but uses a telephone handset at each end. and to children who must remain at home or in a hospital.jajah.elearningcentre.co. A high speed Internet connection is recommended. requiring an Internet hookup.org
Bibliography
Cherry. March 2005. http://www. Skype
See a set of case studies on how Avaya Corporation has deployed its VoIP solutions in education. http://www.htm&Filter=Pillar:IP%20T elephony. Using VoIP. Consumers like VoIP because of the low cost of long distance calls and the flexibility of sending digital voice mail messages to anywhere for later listening. but it is rapidly improving.html
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. and a microphone. 1996).pdf
Selected Examples
Sony Ericsson has developed a “blogging phone” that integrates with Google’s Blogger software. http://www. In the near future. the emerging technology of “voice over internet protocols” (VoIP) has opened up a new world of possibilities for using live voice messaging as an e-learning activity. VoIP is also extending access to education in countries without adequate educational facilities. in remote communities. The Use of VoIP in Online Game Playing: implications for collaborative e-learning. communications tools. Join the discussion at: http://voip. Geraldine (2005). An electronic blackboard can be used along with VoIP for synchronous teaching.ieee. While the telephone has been around for well over 100 years. with unlimited free computer to computer calling and low charges for computer to phone connections. Seven Myths about Voice over IP.com/article/06/02/2 8/75939_HNbloggingphone_1. http://www.skype. Internet telephony is relatively simple. Presentation at the BT/PACCIT Conference. Internet telephony. bloggers using the equipment can see and hear each other while they are blogging. Internet telephony will be used for making intercultural connections between schools around the world and will greatly facilitate foreign language teaching and practice.spectrum. http://www.infoworld.com/ Skype is the best known VoIP service.org/mar05/253 8 Fitzpatrick.avaya.VoIP and Telephony
Related terms
Broadband phones. http://www. a practice known as audio-graphic teleconferencing (Ottoson.ac. http://www. http://www. You go to the Jajah web site and have it dial both your number and the number you are trying to reach.
Online Resources
The e-Learning Centre in the UK maintains a listing of online telephony applications in elearning.weblogsinc. The quality of Internet phone calls is currently not as clear as with dial-up longdistance telephone. Steven (2005).uk/interact/paper s/pdfs/Technology%20Mediated%20Comm unication/PACCIT_05. IEEE Spectrum Online.susx. Schools have begun to use VoIP for teacherparent communications and for parents to monitor their children’s progress at school.voipreview.

edu/design/Ion. In the same way that a Walkman allowed stereo components to be portable. anytime. Their voice and gaze controlled wearable computing technology is used in industrial training situations.hubuska. For example. Supervisors at a remote location can see and listen to what they are doing.html The vu-man wearable computer was developed to improve the maintenance process on complex machines. or repairing complex machines.com/eXact_iTuto r_MoMo/eXactiTutor.uk/1/hi/business/4601 690. ubiquitous computing
>
http://www.ices.stm The Bristol Wearable Computing Project explores the potential of computer devices that are as unconsciously portable and personal as clothes or jewelry.
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.ices.learnexact. This can extend professional training in to remote areas. especially for comercial airlines. managing. Wearable computers are usually either integrated into the user's clothing or are attached to the body through some other means.ppt
>
Description
A wearable computer is a small portable computer that is designed to be worn on the body during use. It is unrestrictive to the user 3.com/Home/Home.bbc. http://killer.bris. including wearable computing.cmu. the size of the computer and input and output components has been reduced.cf m MIThril is a next-generation wearable research platform developed at the MIT Media Lab. It is communicative to others Wearable computing is used by workers who need just-in-time information and training while they are on the job.ht ml SportBrain has a wearable device that tracks physical activity. http://killer. BBC News reported that Levi was manufacturing jeans with iPods already fitted into their pockets.edu/design/VuMan.Wearable Computing
Related terms
Ambient computing. The goal of the MIThril project involves developing and prototyping new techniques of human-computer interaction for bodyworn applications. http://www. training.cmu. It is attentive to the surrounding environment.uk/ eXact Mobile is the first professional Mobile Learning and Wearable Training Content Management Solution for creating.
In January 2006. including batteries.cs.com/Docs/worksh op_hu/Cardinali_Towards_Ambient_Lea rning.co. Wearable computing pioneer Steve Mann at the University of Toronto has identified six informational flow paths associated with this technology (Mann. thereby promoting weight loss and improved fitness.
Selected Examples
In Europe. 1998): 1. It is unmonopolizing of the user's attention 2. training to do their jobs.ac.pdf http://www. It is controllable by the user 5. where local expertise on training in a specific area is not available.com/?aID=2157 ION is a Walkman-sized wearable computer that allows information to go anywhere. The entire system. like a wristband or jewelry.checkpointelearning. Giunti Labs is a leader in researching and developing “ambient” technologies. healthcare workers in training can wear tiny earphones and microphones and cameras hidden in glasses as they move about a hospital. weighs less than three pounds. and give advice in real time on how to handle a situation as it arises. It is observable by the user 4. and other organizations involved in inspecting. http://wearables. and delivering SCORM content to market-leading mobile devices and wearable computers. 6. the automotive industry. http://news. http://www.sportbrain.

CDs. basic text format for quick review. BlogExpress http://usablelabs. MediaThink (2004) lists the following benefits of Web feeds (specifically RSS): > > > > Fast updating Less time “surfing” Avoids extraneous information on a company’s Web site No need to provide an e-mail address to receive information (therefore. information about that change is sent to the desktop of everyone who subscribes to the “feed” for that Web site. Really Simple Syndication (RSS).html 6.com/productBlog Express.net/dl. Both RSS and Atom are written in XML. Because the content is entirely controlled by the person who owns/ manages the feed enabled site. and Atom is the second.php?id=2
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. Here is a list of 48: 1.com 9. social bookmarking. and laptops. Amphetadesk http://www. The URL associated with the orange graphic is put into a user's Web feed aggregator. Web feeds are an efficient way to keep abreast of a changing topic and to have the latest information available without going through the trouble of searching. this method of finding out what is new is spam free. each with its own features. The owner of the aggregator gets a short description of all Web sites with feeds that have changed.bloglines.Web Feeds
Related terms
Atom.org/Aggie. a user must have a Web feed reader or “aggregator. Only those sites that have RSS or Atom feeds can be read by an aggregator. BlogLines http://www. Awasu http://www.attensa. To read content from a Web feed. enabling it to find the Web feed in the future.” as its content is changed by the author. Web feeds allow you to “subscribe” to a Web site that then automatically sends an alert and a short description to your computer when the Web site has been updated.html 2. The content of the Web site that sends the notice is said to be “syndicated. Brightcove http://www. This method of content syndication allows users to poll a site that has a Web feed and see if there are any updates since they last visited. CompleteRSS http://neosmart. and electronics. photo collections. and course offerings. Aggregators are programs that gather favorite Web feed enabled Web sites and present them in one.
Selected Examples
There are many Web feed aggregators. Aggie http://bitworking. with all the potential for viruses and spam.bloglet. Bloglet http://www.awasu. When changes are made to a Web site. listings of the latest books. (The development of Atom was motivated by perceived deficiencies in the RSS 2. The most common types of sites with Web feeds are news sources.brightcove.
>
For learners and teachers. syndication
Web feeds can send content to many kinds of devices.0 format). TV guides. and then “picked up” by multiple subscribers.disobey. blogs.com/ 5. job searches. The most common form of Web feed is RSS (“Rich Site Summary”). PDAs. Many blogs contain a Web feed button that allows users to subscribe to their content. Those sites usually have a small orange XML graphic ( ) that links to the feed.com/ 8. Attensa http://www.com/ 7. including cell phones.com/ampheta desk 3. podcasts.com/ 4.” Aggregators connect with multiple Web feeds. no spam) Improved client relations for marketers
Description
Instead of having items e-mailed to you. feeds.

php?title =SourceWatch Tiki for Education is a wiki being set up to develop shared knowledge on all aspects of education.net/features. http://www. 3. 2. approaches. social networking
Selected Examples
The best known wiki is Wikipedia.
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.sourcewatch. and email notification.schtuff.com/ There are hundred of “wiki engines. Content is ego-less.Wiki Tools
Related terms
Collaboration tools. wikis can be important tools for educational collaboration. http://www.org/index.000 articles in English in Wikipedia.pl?UseModWiki Schtuff is a free wiki service that allows tagging.” The most complete listing is at the following site: http://c2. Collaborative writing wiki: With a page locking system. http://www. http://www.pl?MeatballWiki Frank Gilbane has an article on the enterprise applications for blogs and wikis. 4. time-less.php UseModWiki is the software used to set up the first ever wiki. the software used to run Wikipedia. and never finished. Some fundamental principles include the following: > > > Anyone can change anything.com/cgi/wiki?WikiEngines MeatballWiki is a community of active practitioners striving to teach each other how to organize people using online tools.com/ There are "wiki farms" (places where you can set up a wiki without needing your own server) such as SeedWiki. See the progress at: http://edu. RSS. an image gallery. The term wiki (derived from the Hawaiian word for “quick”) is applied to a diverse set of systems.org/
Description
Wikis are fully editable Web sites.10. With some basic instructions. http://wikipedia. Wikis use simplified hypertext mark-up.com/cgibin/mb. There are now over 1.usemod. These can be shared or peer reviewed and changed by fellow students. anyone can read or add content to a wiki site. the online encyclopedia that has been built with tens of thousands of volunteer contributors.tikiwiki. features.” Essentially. entitled Emerging E-Learning: New Approaches to Delivering Engaging Online Learning Content (Brandon Hall Research. Now in this report I look at the tools available for developing wikis. My first report in this series.com/artpdf/GR12. 2005). See why it is
Tomkins (2005) identifies four different forms of educational wikis: 1.wikipedia.h tml SourceWatch is a wiki that tracks political comments in the USA.
Wiki Tools:
MediaWiki.seedwiki. Anyone can add to it. Lab book wiki: For students to keep notes online. is available for other applications. http://www. it is a platform for open collaborative software development.com/cgibin/wiki.gilbane.usemod. http://www.p df Jotspot is an “application wiki. http://www. For wikis to work.org/tiki-index. reviewed wikis as a separate online content format. and projects.sourceforge. can be used by a team for joint writing. it is important to have several contributors. Single-user wiki: Allows a person to collect and edit his or her own thoughts using a Web-based environment. custom permissions. Knowledge base wiki: A place to collect all the knowledge within a group.300. Wikis are great tools for online collaboration on any topic.

This is due. This has been made possible by dynamic databases and software that simply did not exist twenty years ago. The old models of teaching and learning simply do not work. Teaching in Western societies has generally been carried out by a teacher (instructor. and decline. in part. change itself seems to be inevitable. means that they actually think differently. The pressure of networked digital communications technology to move learning from passive receptive modes of learning to active inquiring modes of learning opposes the tendency of formal
Declining technologies
Technologies that have significantly dropped out of the marketplace: > > > > > CAI – Computer Assisted Instruction CBT – Computer Based Training CD-ROM DVD-ROM Floppy Disks
In time. The experience of younger learners with television. many of the technologies in the developing phase will become products. professor) presenting materials from an approved curriculum to a group of learners (students) in a classroom. with a corresponding reduction in the amount of time spent reading. this approach is now rapidly changing. learners have gone from passively receiving content to doing activities that lead them in many different directions. it is next to impossible to accurately predict patterns of change. mature. to the complex. both in classrooms and online. Not only has the software evolved to manage each individual’s learning needs and desires. However. demands that they get actively involved in the learning experience. and computers. Further. without clear guidelines on how to proceed. while others will last for decades. video games. But not all technologies will travel this road. Part of what drives change is the early learning experiences of a younger generation of media-savvy workers who demand a different way of operating and learning in the workplace. We are living in a complex multi-channel world of information abundance. The resulting shift is a change from receptive learning to active learning (Raschke. dynamic mix of factors and influences that cause a product to be a successful innovation or a
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. 2003). but the types of software have exploded in terms of variety and choice. Some will die quickly. because it resembles the media familiar to younger learners. and Taxonomies Natural Language Processing Peer-to-Peer Technologies Portals Presentation Tools Rapid E-Learning Tools Video and IPTV Virtual Reality VoIP and Telephony
failure. There does seem to be a distinct difference in how the under40-year-old generation learns compared with older adults.> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
Audio and Podcasting Tools Authoring Tools Browsers Communications Tools Competency Tracking Software Content Management Systems Display Technologies E-Portfolio Tools Graphics Tools Learning Management Systems Learning Objects and Repositories Metadata. There is a move away from a few “linear” teaching formats to a rich variety of “nonlinear” teaching strategies. This has been accompanied by a move from instructor led teaching to learner controlled learning – again. The technology of e-learning. some will never leave the development stage. In any field. The trend is towards individualization in all learning activities and in the pace of learning. For a variety of reasons. peak. or may never become commercially viable. ascend the curve. in both formal and informal settings. Ontologies.

and the modeling of complex systems like nuclear reactors or the human body. portfolios. networked computers will mirror a form of collective intelligence that is much more able than the problem-solving capabilities of any individual. It is already a place for massively multiple player games. Emerging e-Learning: innovative content. Douglas (2005).com/Get-Back-BoxInnovationInside/dp/B000IU3E50/ref=sr_11_1/1048608784-5591139?ie=UTF8 Seidensticker. Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation. and the mapping of everything. http://www. The problem is that we have not figured out what to do with that amount of power. Bob (2006). http://www.com/Future-HypeMyths-TechnologyChange/dp/1576753700/ref=sr_11_1/10 4-8608784-5591139?ie=UTF8 Utterback.operitel.amazon. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.amazon. It will also be the ultimate library of ideas. or can be more bound up by the technologies. you needed a guide to take a wagon train from the East-ern seaboard of North America to the “Wild West. Guides are optional.” Today we have multiple methods and an infrastructure to get there. http://www. none of which involve needing a guide (although guided tours are still one option). Boston: Harvard Business School Press. http://www. In the next wave. creative products. The Innovator’s Dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail. With the addition of the Semantic Web or similar schemes.amazon. New York: Collins.atomic and cosmic levels of phenom-ena. Paper presented at the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) International Conference and Exhibition. FutureHype: the myths of technology change.com
Bibliography
Christensen. http://www. http://www. Marc. the multitude of new technologies and on-line content make it possible to take cont-rol of one’s own learning journey. technologies and services for the next 5 years. the entire Internet will reflect group intelligence of the human race. Texas. (2001). Clayton (1997).com/Digital-GameBased-Learning-MarcPrensky/dp/0071454004/sr=11/qid=1160624770/ref=pd_bbs_1/1048608784-5591139?ie=UTF8&s=books
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.amazon.amazon. Dallas. Digital Game-based Learning. Get Back in the Box: innovation from the inside out. which have also greatly increased the possibilities of surveillance and control.com/MasteringDynamics-Innovation-JamesUtterback/dp/0875847404/sr=11/qid=1160624848/ref=pd_bbs_1/1048608784-5591139?ie=UTF8&s=books Woodill. At the individual level. Two hundred years ago. Gary (2006). May 2006. James (1994). San Francisco:Berrett-Koehler. the result of all this power and choice is that individual learners either can be potentially freer to follow their own goals because of the flexibility of learning paths. Likewise. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Rushkoff. shortly.com/InnovatorsDilemma-Revolutionary-BusinessEssentials/dp/0060521996/sr=11/qid=1160624690/ref=sr_1_1/1048608784-5591139?ie=UTF8&s=books Prensky. it will be a giant collaborative workspace.